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- Welcome to my post Super Tuesday voting update. The big takeaway is that the Republican Party in Texas, and in Wise County, moved further to the far right. And that Ken Paxton is somehow turning out to be the most powerful politician in Texas. Here we go . . .
- First up is the Wise County Sheriff's race where we have, in my opinion, a shocker. The choice of the renegade Wise County Conservatives, who have taken over the Republican Party of Wise County, was the top vote getter. Cary Mellema is a a former Rhome Police Chief and tows the MAGA line. He'll be in a run-off with Craig Johnson, the current Chief Deputy in the Wise County Sheriff's Office. I honestly thought it would be a run-off between Johnson and Hoskins.
- In my closely watched State Rep race between Andy Hopper and incumbent Lynn Stucky, if I thought Wise County would be put off by the Oilman PAC trying to buy this election, I was sorely mistaken. (Does anything matter anymore?) Hopper almost won outright, but he and Stucky will go into a run-off where I think Hopper will have a distinct advantage.
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- Any my apologies for basically ignoring Elaine (Taylor) Hays throughout this race. We lived a stone's throw away from each other when we both grew up on the mean streets of Bridgeport.
- The biggest stunner statewide was the little watched Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. Three incumbent pro-prosecutor and tough-on-crime judges were thrown out simply because Ken Paxton targeted them (after they correctly ruled that DAs, and not the AG, had exclusive jurisdiction to prosecute voter fraud.) This is absolutely nuts. How does the disgraced Paxton have this much power? And these races ended up not even being close. Amazing.
- I was worried for David Spiller (R-Jacksboro) after he led Paxton's impeachment as a House Manager, but Paxton, for some reason, never put him on blast. And the big money never lined up against him. As a result, he cruised easily.
- More proof that the ultra-MAGA extremists and the Texas Oilman PAC are gaining power is the victory, over an incumbent, by a COVID protesting hairdresser. Remember her?
- More Paxton power: One of his impeachment defense lawyers defeated an incumbent by just a hair.
- To our north, an incumbent District Attorney was defeated in Montague County. (Shout to the lawyer who told me yesterday in the Wise County district courtroom that this was gong to happen based upon what he had seen.) Man, this was a beat down.
- I don't know anything about the guy, but the southern part of Wise County will be represented in Congress by Brandon Gill. To clear 50% and avoid a run-off with that many candidates is amazing. He will replace the retiring Michael Burgess. The rest of us will still be stuck with Ronny Jackson who did not have an appointment.
- Trump rolled in Wise County (88%), in Texas (78%), and all across the nation. As you sat in your homes on the evening of January 6th, in your wildest dreams did you think this would happen?
Wise County (above) 
National Margin of Victory - The above was so bad than Nikki Haley will (finally) drop out of the race today at 9:00 a.m.
- I doubt he can beat Ted Cruz in the Fall, but Colin Allred will be the best chance ever. (And who wouldn't want a former Baylor linebacker over a Harvard graduate?) Breaking 50% an avoiding a run-off is, once again, impressive.
- The Paxton forces had Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan in their cross-hairs big time. They might still take him down since that race is headed to a run-off.
- As depressing as all this stuff is, I love it all.
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