First Meeting Of The New Harris County Commissioners Court Today

We have been having a wonderful first week of the New Year because we flipped Harris County to dark blue in the 2018 midterms. 

There has practically been an investiture ceremony for our new diverse group of Democratic judges every day at the county courthouse, and I'm speaking at one of them on Thursday for Judge Bill McLeod.

At 10 AM CST this morning we'll get to gleefully watch another historic Harris County political moment as we have our first Harris County Commissioners Court meeting of 2019 with our Democratic majority in place. 

It will also be the first one in which our new County Judge Lina Hidalgo will be presiding over. 

I'm a native Houstonian, but I have never gone downtown to attend a Harris County Commissioner's Court meeting because in large part of it being a Republican controlled body and a waste of my time to do so.

Now with a diverse Democratic majority on it for the first time since I was in high school, this governing body for the third largest county by population in the United States (Harris County has 5 million residents)  has gotten my undivided attention.

Elections matter people, and because of the blue tsunami that swept through Harris County and swept GOP officeholders out with it, it's a brand new day here politically.

We have already seen evidence of that at the county courthouse, where the new judges elected in the Democratic sweep of all 59 judicial benches filed a motion yesterday to withdraw from the appeal of the bail bonds system lawsuit.   The county bail bond system was declared unconstitutional

The suit alleges the county unfairly jails those charged with misdemeanors who cannot afford bail. A federal district judge ordered Harris County to remedy the situation, but the suit has been held up in the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.   All the Republican criminal court judges named in the lawsuit were swept out of office

Partisan political hack Stan Stanart was fired as county clerk by Harris County voters and replaced by Dr. Diane Trautman.   One immediate change was the ability to register to vote online on the county clerk website.   Discussions have started to implement countywide voting centers in which you are able, just as you can during the early voting period, to do so at any location on Election Day. 

One of the items on the agenda for the Harris County commissioner's court meeting is a $15 minimum wage for all county employees.

Looking forward to attending my first ever Commissioner's Court meeting.   

Historic Change Comes To Fort Bend County!

When I was growing up in Houston,  I had a great uncle and aunt who lived in Rosenberg that we used to visit every Christmas until they moved to Houston during my college years. Fort Bend County was despite a sizable Black population, largely white and conservative leaning.

It was Tom DeLay's power base during the 80's and 90's as a reliably red suburb on the southwest corner of purple to blue Harris County.   DeLay rose from here to prominence in the Texas GOP and a state legislative seat.  He eventually got to Washington DC repping the 22nd Congressional District, and became the House Majority Leader and a major adversary of President Bill Clinton.

Fort Bend County isn't red any more.  It has increasingly been trending purple because of the numerous suburban neighborhood that have popped up around Missouri City, Sugar Land, Katy and Rosenberg like Mission Bend, Sienna Plantation, Quail Valley and others.

Fort Bend County not only became since the 80's one of the Houston metropolitan area's fastest growing suburbs next to Montgomery County to the north of us, it is also rapidly diversifying. 

That spells political trouble for the Texas and Fort Bend County Republican Party.

Tom DeLay Country finally flipped blue in the midterms, and while we were at NRG Center yesterday gleefully celebrating Harris County going deep blue, down I-69 our suburban neighbors were having a very Happy Blue Year celebrating their own historic gains.

The Fort Bend Democrats had come close in 2016.   Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Fort Bend County in decades, but unlike here in Harris County, Republicans still won countywide, but by much narrower margins than usual.

That set the stage for what happened on November 6 when the Blue electoral tsunami hit Fort Bend County.

Brian Middleton became the first African American ever elected as the Fort Bend County DA. He was also the first Democrat elected as Fort Bend County DA in 25 years. 

But they didn't stop there.  KP George was also elected to become Fort Bend County judge (the chief executive of the county) and become the first South Asian elected a county judge anywhere in the state of Texas. 

George, as Lina Hidalgo made happen here in Harris County, unseated a longtime Republican incumbent in Robert Herbert, who had held the position for 15 years.

Missouri City also elected its first African American mayor in Yolanda Ford.   The lifelong resident of the town and city council member beat incumbent mayor Allen Owen, who had been running the city for nearly 25 years.

Fort Bend County also elected seven Democratic judges, one of them being a high school classmate of mine in Teana Watson.   This was her third attempt at a judicial run, losing in 2012 to James Shoemake for the 434th District Court, then four years later narrowly losing the race for the 400th District Court to GOP incumbent judge Maggie Jaramillo.

The third time was the charm for Watson in her race for the Fort Bend County Court At Law #5 bench, comfortably beating Republican Harold Kennedy. 

Shapnik Khan, the vice chair of the Fort Bend Democratic Party, also attributed the wins to the increasing diversity of the county.

“It’s the minorities like us,” he said in an interview with Ella Feldman. “The Asian-Americans, the Hispanics, the African-Americans, it’s a combination of the different ethnicities. They’re moving in, and not only moving in, but getting involved.”
That they are.   Even more importantly, they are working together to change the county for the better and make its leaders and government officials as diverse as Fort Bend County is.Congrats Fort Bend Dems!  The easy part is over of flipping the county blue.   Now comes the hard work of keeping it that way.

Mississippi 2018 US Senate Debate

If you thought the 2018 midterms were over, not quite.   We still have some races in a few states that went to runoffs, and others they are still counting ballots in close races. 

One of those states in which a runoff is occurring is Mississippi, where Mike Espy is trying to become the first Black senator elected from the Magnolia State since Hiram Revels did so during Reconstruction.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) was appointed to fill the seat after Thad Cochran resigned for health reasons.  She has lately been making news for all the wrong reasons.

She commented that she would be on the front row of a public hanging lynching, and came out in favor of voter suppression.   An old picture has surfaced with Hyde-Smith in a Confederate cap standing next to a person from an SPLC certified hate group. 

This isn't dog whistle racism.  This is alarm klaxon racism.  That also concerns me as someone who has maternal side family members who live in Mississippi.

The debate between Espy and Confederate Cindy was last night, so if you missed it, here's the video of it.

Trans America Has a Great 2018 Election Night

The political junkie in me was up late watching returns and election coverage until I finally called it a night at 3 AM.   While I was focused on Texas, local and some key national races, I also had a nervous eye cast in the direction of Massachusetts to see what was happening with Question 3.

After a trans non discrimination law was passed in 2016 with public accommodations language, the Axis of Anti-trans Evil in the Bay State gathered signatures to put it on the ballot.

It was the first time we'd had a trans rights law put on the ballot for potential repeal, and the stakes were high surrounding Question 3.  A loss using the same bathroom predator attacks in a blue state means that us red state folks would probably spend 2019 fighting a red tide of anti-trans referenda.  A win means our Massachusetts trans and GNC fam keep that hard fought for law.

The national trans community justifiably saw this as a must win referendum.  Laverne Cox, VA Del Danica Roem, Trans United Fund and other people went to the state to help the YES on 3 team get what turned out to be a huge win for American transkind as the Trump misadministration is preparing to ramp up anti-trans oppression.

Question 3 was a resounding win for the trans community  1.5 million Massachusetts voters, or 67.7 percent, voted YES to preserve the current anti-discrimination law and support transgender rights. About 700,000 people or 32.3 percent, voted NO.

While the Massachusetts Question 3 referendum was the big news for Trans Election Night 2018, we also had in New Hampshire two more trans women get elected to state legislatures.

Gerri Cannon and Lisa Bunker were elected to the New Hampshire House.  Cannon finished second in the Stafford County District 18 race.  Bunker will represent Rockingham County after she won in District 18, that includes the city of Exeter.

Brianna Titone's race in Colorado is too close to call at this moment.  She's trailing by 400 votes in the race for the open Arvada area HD-27 seat    In another open seat race in Montana's HD 52, Amelia Marquez is trailing Republican Rodney Garcia by just 205 votes

As for the other trans candidates in this cycle, Christine Hallquist's bid to become the first ever trans governor fell short in Vermont, but she got an impressive 40% of the vote. 

Martin Rawlings- Fein and Mia Satya fell short in their San Francisco school board races,

In my home state of Texas, Finnigan Jones got 44% of the vote, but lost to incumbent Republican Tony Tinderholt.    The Austin City Council races also didn't break Danielle Skidmore's or Jessica Cohen's way in their respective council district races.

So we trans Texans are still waiting for our first elected trans officeholder.

So while we had a great night, it definitely could have been a lot better.   These close races will eventually break our way and result in more trans people getting elected and #TransformingPolitics when we do so. 

But we did take more steps toward making that political day happening

It's Election Day, Family! Go Vote!

At 7 AM the polls will open in Texas and across the nation for a crucial election that will determine the course of this country.    If you haven't voted already, please do so.

Nah, scratch that.  That crucial election to our country was two years ago.  The one today will determine how fast and how much of the mess gets cleaned up from Agent Orange's disastrous mispresidency. 

As for how I feel at this moment?   I'm nervous, but a lot more confident we'll have some successes to celebrate later tonight than I was in the last days before the 2016 election..

I've already cast my ballot.   I did so on the first day of early voting, and was part of the massive early voting turnout in Harris County that saw over 855K of us heading to the polls nearly matching our 2016 presidential election numbers.   There were over 5 million Texans lining up to do so across the state as the last minute attack ad blitz and nonstop political ads had me frequently picking up my remote to hit the mute button.

So who did I vote for?   Damned sure wasn't my Texas Republican oppressors.  I had plenty of great Democratic candidates to vote for up and down the ballot. 

In Harris County, I got the pleasure of voting for the 19 Black women who are seeking to sprinkle their sorely needed Black Girl Magic, Black Excellence and diversity all over our Harris County court system.    Good luck to you, ladies.

We have trans candidates on the ballot across the country seeking to transform politics and make history in their respective states.   Christine Hallquist is running for governor of Vermont.  Brianna Titone and Amelia Marquez are seeking to become state legislators in Colorado and Montana.
Martin Rawlings-Fein and Mia Satya are running for positions on the San Francisco school board.

And in the Lone Star State, Danielle Skidmore, Jessica Cohen and Finnigan Jones are running for the Austin City Council and Texas Legislature.

I'll be casting an nervous eye toward Massachusetts to see if Question 3 either passed to protect the human rights of trans Bay Staters or enough transphobic Massholes voted NO to gut the just passed trans rights law.

I'll also be looking at Georgia, Florida and Maryland to see if all three states elected their first Black governors in Stacey Abrams, Andrew Gillum and Ben Jealous.

To avoid the nerve wracking anxiety of watching the clock and trying to resist the temptation to watch MSNBC and CNN until the polls close, I'll definitely be relying on my DVD movie collection and Netflix subscription to distract me.   

When the polls finally do close,  if I don't attend somebody's watch party,  I'll be at home hitting the laptop going to the Harris County elections website and yelling "Fire Stan Stanart" as our election returns get released at a snail's pace.

Remember, voting is like driving a car.   If you want society to move forward, you vote 'D'.  If you want society to move backwards, you vote 'R'

 Once again, it's Election Day!  Handle your electoral business and go vote.

TransGriot 2018 Election Endorsements : Beto O'Rourke for US Senate!

I'm not a fan of my Canadian senator Rafael Cruz, and was hoping that in this 2018 cycle some big name Texas Democrat would step up to the plate and take a shot at knocking off the very unpopular Cruz.

That person turned out to be Rep Beto O'Rourke.   He is the congressman repping El Paso in far West Texas.

Over the last few months since he has announced his run for the US Senate, has done something no Democrat has done since Lloyd Bentsen in terms of running a competitive US Senate race.

And I and every Texas Democrat love it.

The Republicans have going from pooh-poohing his campaign to spending serious money on eye roll inducing attack ads.   I enjoyed watching Beto eviscerate Cruz in their first debate at SMU.    Looking forward to their next scheduled one at UH

Beto continues to run positive campaign ads and expose as my mother calls him, our Canadian senator, as the shameless one trick right wing political pony he is.   O'Rourke continues to out fundraise Cruz without taking corporate or PAC money.   

And on the issues, Beto has unapologetically called out police violence against Black folks, the unacceptable Trump baby jails, and has a forward looking platform I and many Texans across all 254 of our ginormous state's counties can get behind. 

Oh yeah, unlike Rafael, Beto has visited and talked to Texans in all 254 of Texas' counties.  Cruz hasn't even come close to doing so, much less done events in Black neighborhoods as Beto has repeatedly done.

As a transgender Texan, Beto has made it clear that he stands with us.  Ted  Cruz made it clear in his failed 2016 presidential campaign that he doesn't by attacking transgender people 

Beto has also made it clear that he is not afraid to talk about tough issues.



All Rafael Cruz offers is more partisan attacks and not caring about anyone except wealthy white Texans.

That's why I'm enthusiastically endorsing Beto O'Rourke  for the US Senate, and urge my fellow Texans to vote for him when early voting starts on October 22 or on Election Day this November 6.

For those of you who don't live in the Lone Star State,  you can support him here. 

Nineteen Black Women Running For Harris County Judicial Benches

One of the other interesting things I'll be watching on Election Night 2018 is the developing story of nineteen Black women who are running for various judicial benches in the most populous county in Texas, Harris County. 

This story has been building since the March Texas primary, when these women won their various judicial primary races.

One of the stories that was overshadowed in the 2016 election is the fact that Harris County, which had been trending purple over the last few cycles, went undeniably blue that year and is on track to do so again in less than 60 days.

Harris County provides 25% of all the votes cast in a Texas statewide election. The other reason why these 19 Black women running is important for our community is because in addition to providing judicial leadership that reflects our community, winners of judicial seats, since they are countywide races, are looked at as potential candidates by the parties for statewide and federal races.

These women are not only part of the historic wave of Black women running for office in this 2018 cycle, they are also sending the undeniable message that Black women are the base of the Democratic Party, they deserve to be listened to, and also hold public office.  .

For you people who claim that you #TrustBlackWomen, your best bet for proving that you do precisely that would be to commit yourself to the action starting during the early voting period on October 22 and closing on November 6 to electing all nineteen of these well qualified Black women candidates for the judicial benches they are running for 

Our Harris County courthouse judges need to reflect the diversity of the 5 million people who live in the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the US. 

Electing these 19 women, Dedra Davis, Maria Jackson, Latosha Lewis Payne, Shannon Baldwin, Erica Hughes, Ronnisha Bowman, Tonya Jones, Cassandra Holleman, LaShawn Williams, Ramona Franklin, Lauren Reeder, Angela Graves-Harrington, Sandra Peake, Lori Chambers Grey, Linda M. Dunson, Germaine Tanner, and Michelle Moore would be a huge step toward making that diversity in the courthouse a reality

Trust Black women means electing Black women to public office.

Alexandra Chandler Is Running For Congress

One of the other election results I'll be paying close attention to in Massachusetts on September 4 besides the Republican gubernatorial primary featuring incumbent  Gov. Charlie Baker versus the reprehensible LGBT hatemonger Scott Lively is the US House District 3 race Democratic primary.

The Question 3 referendum on the statewide trans rights law will happen in the general election on November 6. 

Rep. Nikki Tsongas (D) decided to retire, setting off a nine candidate scramble to replace her on the Democratic side of the ballot. 

One of those candidates is Alexandra Chandler, a Navy veteran and former intelligence analyst who is another one of the wave of qualified and unapologetically trans candidates #TransformingPolitics.



She is endorsed by Trans United Fund, other organizations, and various politicians in the 3rd Congressional District.

Should she win her primary race, she'll not only make Massachusetts political history as the first trans person in the Bay State to win a congressional primary, it will put her one step closer to becoming the first out trans person elected to the US Congress,

We've had a few people since Amanda Simpson became the first out trans person to win a Democratic congressional primary race in Arizona back in 2004 who have come close to achieving that milestone of getting elected to Congress. 

Here's hoping that Chandler breaks through and makes it happen. 

But the first step to getting to the November 6 general election is winning the MA-3 primary on September 4   

I'm Midterm Election Ready - Are You?

One of the informational nuggets that emerged from the MomsRising #NN18 panel last week was making sure that you are registered to vote for this critical to our democracy 2018 midterm election.

Our panel  moderator Kristin Rowe Finkbeiner pointed out that the staff of MomsRising recently checked their registrations.  Two of them discovered to their horror that despite being active voters, they had been chopped from their local voting rolls. 

So before November 6 gets here, please check to make sure you're registered to vote before your state's deadline day, and keep checking it on a regular basis for the next 91 days.

This is going to be crucial,  especially if you live in a state with a Republican secretary of state or a county with a Republican voter registrar.   The GOP knows they are going down hard, will be desperate to purge people off the voter rolls, and the conservative controlled SCOTUS will look the other way as they do so. 

I had concerns about mine since I just moved, but with my new license arriving on Monday and my new voter registration card arriving yesterday combined with me spotting my name on the county Harris Votes database, I'm midterm election ready and will be cross checking it all the way to the October 9 deadline date to register in Texas.

And yes, I plan to be at the polls for the first day of early voting in Texas on October 22 

So handle your electoral business and make sure you are midterm election ready.

TransGriot Houston Area Texas Primary Endorsements

Early voting for the Texas primary elections starts on Monday and runs until March 2, with the primary election itself on March 6.    To help you TransGriot Texas readers out, it's time for me to announce the folks that I am endorsing for various races in the Democratic primary

I went through the Big 4 endorsements, plus my own observations about some of the candidates to come up with this list.   May be adding to it over the next few days until the start of early voting.     

Governor- Lupe Valdez 
Lt Governor- Mike Collier

US Senate- Beto O'Rourke
US House District 2- Todd Litton 
US House District 7- Laura Moser 
US House District 10- Madeline K. Eden
US House District 14- Adrienne Bell
US House District 18- Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee 
US House District 22- Sri Preston Kulkami
US House District 29- Sen. Sylvia R. Garcia  
US House District 36- Dayna Steele

GLO Commissioner- Tex Morgan
State Board of Education #4  Lawrence Allen 

TX State Senate 15- Sen. John Whitmire
TX State Senate 17- Fran Watson 

TX House 27- Rep. Ron Reynolds
TX House 28- Megan Scoggins
TX House 29- Dylan Forbis
TX House 126-Natali Hurtado
TX House 133- Sandra G. Moore 
TX House 134- Allison Sawyer
TX House 138- Adam Milasincic
TX House 139- Randy Bates
TX House 142- No Endorsement
TX House 146- Rep. Shawn Nicole Thierry
TX House 147- Rep. Garnet Coleman

TX 14th Court of Appeal #3 - Jerry Zimmerer 

TX 14th Court of Appeals #8-  Margaret Meg' Poissant
55th Civil District Court- Latosha Lewis Payne 
113th Civil District Court- Rabeea Collier
185th Civil District Court- Jason Luong

188th Civil District Court - Scot 'Doll' Dollinger
234th Civil District Court - Lauren Reeder
269th Civil District Court- Shampa Mukerji
281st Civil District Court- George Arnold

246th Family District Court - Angela Graves-Harrington
280th Family District Court - Barbara J. Stalder
309th Family District Court - Linda Marie Dunson
313th Family District Court - Natalia Oakes
County Criminal Court #2 - Harold J. Landreneau
County Criminal Court #5 - David M. Fleischer
County Criminal Court #7 - Andrew A. Wright
County Criminal Court #11 - Gus Saper
County Criminal Court #12 - Juan J. Aguirre
County Criminal Court #13 - Raul Rodriguez
County Criminal Court #15 - Kris Ougrah
County Probate Court #2 - Jim L. Peacock
County Probate Court #4 - James Horwitz
County Civil Court at Law #2 - Jim Kovach
Harris County District Clerk - Marilyn Burgess
Harris County Clerk - Diane Trautman
County Treasurer - Dylan Osborne
Harris County Commissioner #2 - Adrian Garcia
Harris County Commissioner #4 - Penny Shaw
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 3, #2 - Don Coffey
Harris County Justice of the Peace Pr 7, #2 - Audrie Lawton
County School Trustee At Large #3 - Elvonte Patton
County School Trustee Pos 6, Pct 1 - Danyahel (Danny) Norris

Other Texas Democratic Primary races I'm endorsing
US House District 27-Vanessa Edwards Foster 
TX House 62- Valerie Hefner    
TX House 75- Rep. Mary Gonzalez
TX House 94- Finnigan Jones   
TX House 123-  Rep. Diego Bernal

Texas Supreme Court Place #2- Steve Kirkland
116th Civil District Court- Tonya Parker
Williamson County Justice of the Peace Pct 4  Stacy Hackenberg

We Must Vote

Hey, whatever it takes to get you peeps to the polls tomorrow.

Here's civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), who took a beatdown at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL during Bloody Sunday so you can walk your behinds a few blocks to your local polling place to vote.