The Texas governor’s election is a little suspicious

The Texas governor’s election is a little suspicious:

I’m not one to go for election conspiracy theories, but still…

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As my friends know, I avoid election conspiracies, because it’s better to focus on winning the next one rather than make excuses the last one.  I was there in 1976 when a bunch of us in college thought the GOP was dead after a “southern moderate” named Governor Carter beat President Ford.  How are we ever coming back? we said.

Well, then a bunch of things happened, the GOP had a nice comeback in 1978, and Reagan won in 1980.  Then there was election night 1992, when President Bush went down to our neighbor, Governor Clinton from Arkansas. Two years later, the GOP won the Congress.  Or that election night in 2008, when I couldn’t sleep because a guy named Senator Obama had beaten Senator McCain.  Get my drift?  Things change, especially if you fight back rather than sit around crying.

Let’s come down to Texas.  The biggest shock of 2026 is not “the curse of the midterms.”  It happens.  Just ask President Eisenhower in 1958 or President Reagan in 1986.  My eyes could not believe that a totally, and I mean totally, unknown state representative named Gina Hinojosa was beating the mighty Governor Abbott: 53–46 percent.

The Democrats nominated Hinojosa because none of the others wanted to burn his future challenging Governor Abbott.  Even national Democrats didn’t spend money here because no one thought she had a chance.

And she wins.  Then we hear that all of these counties turned blue one election after they were totally red.

So what happened?  Maybe Texas just fell in love with Gina like that song by Johnny Mathis.  Remember the guy who saw Gina, and off he went?  Love happens, you know: “I can’t believe that I’m such a lucky guy to have Gina, Gina all for my very own.”

Of course, there may be another explanation. I’m hearing a lot of other stories that this love affair with Gina was more like an arranged marriage than love at first sight.  I don’t know, but someone smarter than me has to take a look at these numbers and see if they make any sense.  I’m sorry, but I can’t believe that high gasoline prices and hatred of data centers had that many people fall in love with a woman who wants sanctuary cities and wants data centers to employ union labor.

Something doesn’t make sense.  Maybe the electorate was really that angry, but maybe something creepy happened with all of those first-time voters who voted early.  I’m open to hearing an explanation.

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