Finance and Economy

Texas is now Blue

Texas is Blue

Last night I went to bed at 2am. I was waiting to hear Abdul El-Sayed's victory speech. So I am under slept but deeply satisfied. You know I was talking to my wife a couple of days back, about if we can flip only one of the Texas races, the Senate race or the Governor race, which one should we wish for? It is a very hard choice, because putting a democrat senator from Texas at national stage has long term impact, but Greg Abbott as a governor of Texas was doing real damage to my children directly by defunding public school system where my kids go. Abbott's evil impact was and still is direct to my family.

Thankfully we didn't have to choose! You got both our wishes!

Do you now see the blue spine of Texas? DFW to Austin to San Antonio to Rio Grande Valley turned blue. In fact 77% Latino votes went to the democrats. That alone is game over for Republicans in Texas.

First Latina Governor in Texas

The Austin state representative and former Austin school board president won the race with roughly 52.8% of the vote (5,226,388 votes) to Abbott's 45.7% (4,523,160 votes). This school-board background is the key and my main interest to elect her as a Governor for Texas. Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa has made several key promises regarding Houston Independent School District (HISD) and Texas public education:

Promises Regarding HISD and State Takeover

End the State Takeover: She has pledged to end the state takeover of HISD and return local control of the district back to the community and elected school board
Fire the TEA Commissioner: She promised to fire Texas Education Agency (TEA) Commissioner Mike Morath on her first day in office, a key figure overseeing the HISD intervention
Oppose AI School Expansions: She criticized and vowed to oppose HISD's plans to expand AI-focused school models to 100 campuses, labeling it an experiment on children

The above is straight from Gina Hisojosa's website, and today Elon Musk correctly pointed out, "Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now"

Yes, Sir! Not in my backyards!

I have a lot to write about this, but I need to take some rest!

Comments · 14

@mortezayousefi(69)· 3d
I'm not sure a single election can fix everything
@coinjoe(73)· 3d
Now lets see what they can do with their new positions. Time to put the money where their mouth is.
@curatorcat.pal(68)· 3d
Even though I don't live in Texas anymore, I must admit that I was really happy to see the Democrats finally make serious inroads! I actually lived there when Ann Richards was governor...

What impressed me was that both Gina Hinojosa and James Talarico won by handy margins, not just in "squeakers." My biggest worries (in general) had been that we'd end up with a bunch of super close races that would end up in endless recounts, fraud allegations and litigation.

Almost as noteworthy... Kansas electing their first Democrat senator since 1932 and on the edge of electing a Democrat governor. And Iowa voting blue. For sure, looking forward to seeing what El Sayed accomplishes.
@agmoore(76)· 3d

"Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now"

We should be so lucky that he personally colonizes space!

When my kids were growing up I was preoccupied with their education, and frustrated by what I believed was a watered down curriculum. However, there was never a problem of limited resources. It was a matter of educational philosophy.

I'm very happy for you, your wife, and your kids. I'm very happy for all the children of Texas.

A happy day is drawing to a close for me. Texas, the jewel in the crown, but also South Carolina, Georgia, and maybe Mississippi!!!!!I'm enjoying the moment and will deal with reality tomorrow.
@beelzael(75)· 3d
That was some pretty interesting outcome. I hope it turns out the way you hope, but as you say in the comments, governance isn't easy. I listened to a lot of analysts today about it, and they all said that the main change is on state level. National level could be in grid-lock now (if I understood correctly), but the states will be able to implement a lot of changes within their territory, if they so wish. Hence, I hope that your hope comes true :-)
@shanibeer(74)· 3d
Pleased for you.
@aussieninja(71)· 3d
I definitely thought of you as the news was rolling in... I'm extremely happy with the results - and I'm sure there was still a lot of voter suppression happening as a result of gerrymandering and intimidation and all the tricks, so the in reality it probably should have swung harder towards the Dems.

Data centers in space are not feasible and I'm sure Musk knows that - but I'm also pretty sure that the demand for GenAI doesn't actually meet the supply (hence the move to try and push GenAI to replace teachers) so I'm not sure if more data centers are even actually needed.
@steevc(81)· 4d
We're watching with interest from over here as we can see the damage Trump is doing. His influence and that of Musk did not win the day and people will be judging them no matter what they say. It's really not surprising if the Latinas vote Dem given what has been going on. I don't think it's all about Iran by any means and we are not directly seeing how people get on day to day.

With this and Brazil and Serbia there's a little more hope in the world.
@leaky20(79)· 4d
We were all pretty happy up here today with the news.

Ai schools just sounds insane.
@logen9f(77)· 4d
Congratulations, the people have spoken and Dems got lower and upper houses. I hope some positive change to come out of this.
@seattlea(78)· 4d
I never heard of AI-focused school models... What is that all about? I am a big fan of AI and we even taught our 13 year old daughter to use AI, we are also planning to teach her how to use AI Agents to create stuff...

Congratulations on winning Texas, that is really un-expected! Given the last two years it was definitely time to clean out the corruption that tends to grow as one party controls everything...
@bozz(83)· 4d
I really didn't think things would go this way. I mean I hoped, but I just had a feeling that the fear and blindness we have seen for so many years would just continue. My wife's relatives were telling us about the AI schools when we were down in Texas last month. It's a crazy concept. Since my wife and I both work in the public school system, we are not fans. El Sayed is definitely fun to watch. I just hope he can deliver. I didn't stay up until 2 AM :) I think one of the best things is that a lot of the races weren't even close. It's a big enough margin that it's pretty clear the public has spoken.
@edward777(63)· 4d
thank god!
@oblivioncubed(71)· 4d
Hell yes! Happy for you guys, that's fantastic.