Harris County Grassroots Progressive Voter Guide for the March 2024 Democratic Primaries
Your Official In-Depth Endorsement Guide for the Harris County Democratic Party Primary Elections
Some years, the primary elections feel more consequential than others. Without a highly competitive presidential primary going on for the Democrats, some people may appear harder to engage in the process.
But the truth is that there is a HUGE fault line in the 2023 Harris County Democratic primary:
Our DA’s race is a basic battle between right and wrong.
There are judges and judicial candidates who support reform alongside public safety, and there are others who imprison people based on race or pocketbook.
There are sitting electeds who support privatization and the denial of free speech in our schools, and there are challengers who believe that education is a right.
All of these races become ever more important under the uncertainty of the 2024 federal races, which feature Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. The more pro-democracy and pro-equity our local officials are—the more they oppose racism and classism in our courts, schools, and other public domains—the more of a democracy we will have, and the better people will be treated.
Print this guide or write down these selections before going to the polls in the 2023 Harris County Democratic Party primary. I have created a short version of the entire list of endorsements at the end of this article. I may also update this list in the future to include races as I make further decisions about my ballot, so come back and visit for potential new races added to the list, too.
Keep in mind that even if you are a Harris county voter, some you may not be a voter for all races listed in this guide.
Remember to vote, and bring ten friends to the polls!
And now… my endorsements.
My Harris County Democratic Party 2024 Primary Endorsements
District Attorney - Sean Teare
County Attorney- Christian Menefee
District Judge, 338th Criminal Court- Allison Jackson Mathis
District Judge, 486th Criminal Court - Gemayel Haynes
District Judge, 507th Family Court - Lillian Alexander
SD-15 - Molly Cook
HD-139 - Rosalind Caesar
HD-142 - Danny Norris
HD-146 - Lauren Ashley Simmons
Justice, 4th Court of Appeals, Place 8 - Richard Hightower
Justice, 14th Court of Appeals, Place 6 - Meagan Hassan
District Judge, 151st Civil Court - Mike Englehart
County Probate Court, #5 - Fran Watson
TX-38 - Gion Thomas
Texas Railroad Commissioner - Bill Burch
Senate- Roland Gutierrez
Justice, TX Supreme Court Place 2- Dasean Jones
Justice, TX Supreme Court Place 6- Bonnie Lee Goldstein (Opponent started voting in Democratic Primary last cycle)
SD 7- Nasir Malik (Moderate, but only candidate who is showing up to anything or working for the seat)
Justice, TX Supreme Court Place 6- Peter Kelly
Justice, TX 14th Court of Appeals Place 4- Charles Spain (I commend Derek Obialo for his stance on how bail has impacted the legal system)
Justice, TX 14th Court of Appeals Place 6- Chuck Silverman (Early bail reform advocate from the bench)
District Judge, 133rd Civil- Nicole Perdue
Constable, Precinct 5- Jerry Rodriguez
Important Dates for Harris County Voting
First Day to Apply for Ballot By Mail- Monday, January 1st, 2024
Last Day to Register to Vote- Monday, February 5th, 2024
First Day of Early Voting- Tuesday, February 20, 2024
Last Day to Apply for Ballot by Mail (Received, not postmarked)- Friday, February 23, 2024
Last Day of Early Voting- Friday, March 1st, 2024
ELECTION DAY (AND Last Day to Receive Ballot By Mail)- Tuesday, March 5th, 2024*
*Tuesday, March 5, 2024 (Election Day) at 7:00 p.m. if carrier envelope is not postmarked, OR Wednesday, March 6, 2024 (next business day after Election Day) at 5:00 p.m. if carrier envelope is postmarked by 7:00 p.m. at the location of the election on Election Day (unless overseas or military voter deadlines apply)4
One last shout out: thank you Erik Manning for your Harris County candidate spreadsheets. They make writing things like this much easier.
District Attorney - Sean Teare
Teare is a former prosecutor in the office of the current incumbent, Kim Ogg. I will make a positive and pragmatic case for Sean, but I want to first discuss the issue with the incumbent.
I have made this case before, very publicly; I authored a resolution to admonish the District Attorney that passed overwhelmingly at our county convention by a vote of 129-61.
Ogg’s behavior in office has been horrific, far beneath the office or the needs of the county, and there are now many grassroots Democrats who are willing to say so publicly. There are, in fact, so many grassroots Democrats willing to say so that the DA’s responses to criticisms have fallen flat to all but a small handful of her loyalists, many of whom she pays. Paid or not, a good chunk of the ones I have met tend toward bullying, a strategy people are completely fed up with.
In other words, the base of the party is in an uprising against the DA.
The DA has responded to all of this by calling for “unity,” which would make George Orwell blush. The evidence has shown over the last six years that she has abused her office, opposed Democratic values, and consistently worked against the party.
In the 2023 city council election, in which the Democratic Party lost dominance of the council, Ogg endorsed a Republican over a sitting elected Latino Democrat, Richard Cantu.
A short time ago, Ogg hired the GOP's top state Republican attorney, Rachel Palmer Hooper to the tune of $175,000 in taxpayer dollars to investigate County Judge Lina Hidalgo. Evidence shows that Mrs. Palmer Hooper was the general counsel for the Texas GOP while executing her investigation against the judge.
Mrs. Palmer Hooper’s husband is a far right Harris County activist who calls any Democrat who criticizes Ogg a “communist.” He’s also a donor to Kim Ogg’s warchest. Mr. Hooper recently took a shot at the wife and daughter of one of his Republican rivals, John R. Eakin, who responded with a short but robust history of some of Mr. and Mrs. Hooper’s most disgraceful behavior: allegations of impersonating a police officer and threatening yet another member of the state GOP. Eakin also pointed out that Mrs. Palmer Hooper once had to plead the 5th as an assistant DA, which is, as one special prosecutor called it, “disturbing.”
Rachel Palmer Hooper also filed a formal complaint challenging the vote of a 64-year-old black parolee who thought he could vote and stood in line for hours at the polls trying to do so. Per The Guardian:
“Rachel Hooper, a Republican precinct chair in Harris county, filed a formal complaint in March last year, saying Rogers was ineligible to vote. She obtained a copy of his voter registration application through a public records request and noted he had signed a statement indicating he had completed all punishment for a felony. The form contains the warning at the bottom of the application.”
Our indicted attorney general Ken Paxton referred the case to Kim Ogg’s office, and the DA investigated, which is required by law. However, Texas law does not require her to take the investigation as far as she did by taking Mr. Rogers’ case in front of a grand jury. Thankfully, he was cleared.
These are just a few of the DA’s rightwing friends, and it tracks with her other political behavior. In 2020, the DA falsely blamed misdemeanor bail reform for spikes in crime and used Democratic judges as punching bags.
In 2022, she carried Republican talking points, falsely accusing commissioners court of “defunding law enforcement.” Our local FOX station had a field day with it. Harris County Democrats lost two Black Democratic judges and nearly lost the countywide vote. And she has taken thousands of dollars from bail bondsmen in her campaigns, and gave one of the worst, most reckless bail bondsmen and campaign donors out there a seat on her transition team to weigh in on bail reform. Her relationship with him may also be the reason she abstained from a vote against curtailing cheap bail for violent offenses in Harris County. Nobody needs the bail industry at the table. They’re leeches and profiteers.
The fact is that she has been at odds for years with almost every significant Democratic Black or Brown official, often using her office to launch political investigations: the State chair, a former county chair, the county judge, commissioners, Mayor Turner, almost every judge, and every major criminal justice, racial justice, and immigration organization. She says this is common for a DA because she is law enforcement, but no other Democratic DA in Texas has these issues.
The DA says that she is simply doing her job and following the law, but the DA is fudging facts. The law did not require taking Mr. Rogers to the grand jury. The law doesn't, as Ogg has implied in a flimsy defense, jeopardize her with removal for speaking up for abortion access.
The DA has prosecuted with a double standard. When the grand jury no billed the officer who killed Jalen Randle, the DA put out a standard 2 sentence statement saying she respected their decision. When they no billed Rodney Ellis, she leaked an alarming, unprecedented two page open letter calling for further investigation to the media. When she was referred a case from female deputies in a constable's office saying they were used in abusive bachelor party style stings, she sent it back to the constable for internal review.
This has all been basically an open secret that has leaked out a little at a time. But when the Chronicle turned it into a public discussion with an article detailing the DA’s bad behavior in late September with the headline “Don’t Cross Her,” this all lurched toward one mass public discussion. Soon after that story broke, I authored and submitted a resolution with 63 other Democrats admonishing the District Attorney, the most cosponsored resolution ever submitted to the county party. We soon had more than 110 signatures, and later passed the resolution by a vote of more than 2:1. A diverse and inclusive grassroots team of precinct chairs, captains, and other activists have taken up the mantle of holding the DA accountable.
That includes exchanging the DA for a good candidate, and we have one in Sean Teare. Mr. Teare used to work in the DA’s office, so he knows how bad the situation can be with Kim Ogg at the helm. He is in line with party values on major issues, such as misdemeanor cash bail reform, abortion, and dismissing petty marijuana charges. Teare has explained thoroughly and to my satisfaction how he intends to clear out the backlog in the jail, which should decrease the deaths and abuse that have taken place in the Harris County jail system. He has made assurances to continue dialogue on First Amendment issues so that grassroots activists can be safe in our county. His issues page outlines his positions clearly. And he is endorsed by Lina Hidalgo, so it would take a heck of an about face for him to suddenly start siding with Republicans.
If you’re skeptical though, I get it. We are all a little burned by the last supposedly progressive Democratic DA with a viable campaign, Kim Ogg, who turned out to be a divisive and truthless bully.
The difference this time is that the movement that will sweep this DA into power is entirely bottom up. Some good folks helped elect Ogg; most have buyer’s remorse. I endorse Sean Teare knowing that if we run into a similar situation, we will have a machine of accountability that can activate to hold any elected official accountable. So we have that safety net. That, combined with the fact that he does seem decent, are enough to earn more endorsement.
Vote for Sean Teare, and tell all of your friends to do the same.
County Attorney- Christian Menefee
Christian Menefee is a clear contrast from the District Attorney. Whereas the DA represents what is wrong with our state and country’s worst Democratic incumbents, Menefee has done an admirable job. After rising to power through primarying a longtime incumbent who opposed misdemeanor cash bail reform, Menefee has taken great positions to hold bad actors accountable in Harris County.
Christian is also a rising star, and the youngest Harris County attorney in history and the first Black Harris County attorney. He makes good decisions and helps the party. He's taken on concrete batch plants and pursued litigation against Union Pacific for its misdeeds in Cashmere Gardens. He was the first Texas County Attorney to oppose Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's absurdly cruel directive to investigate families with trans kids for child abuse.
Perhaps most importantly, Menefee has stood up to Greg Abbott at every turn through various lawsuits attacking our elections. Democracy issues are some of the most important we face. Harris County elections are constantly under threat. With Trump back on the ballot and Texas Republicans playing footsie with Nazis, we need a county attorney who has shown that he is willing to stand up to the governor. I like the one we have, and think we should stick with him.
District Judge, 338th Criminal Court- Allison Jackson Mathis
Allison Jackson Mathis has the makings of a great judge and a great organizer for justice. She’s super smart and logical. She cares. She put herself through undergrad as a coffee shop waitress, and witnessed the harms of addiction in her own family. Mathis has been a public defender overseas, locally, and on tribal lands in Washington for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Reservation. I love that she knows Houston, that she has contributed here, and appreciate that she has experience from elsewhere. Mathis sought two women of color to run for the seat before running for it herself because she could not leave the incumbent, Ramona Franklin, unchallenged.
Franklin’s judicial approach has been draconian. She once ruled against bond for a man one week from his deathbed thanks to cirrhosis of the liver. Even the sheriff was pleading not to take the man in. Ogg’s prosecutor on the scene downplayed how sick the defendant really was, and he was transferred to a hospital immediately after intake. The defendant had made 20 straight months of release hearings without issue. But because it was a murder trial, Franklin ruled as though he were a dangerous flight risk for a false “flex” of her credentials.
Franklin also made a questionable civil rights ruling in denying a petition after a man’s lawyer dropped the ball in his defense. His lawyer, Vivian King (now Kim Ogg’s Chief of Staff), wrote a letter saying she would file a specific petition appealing something on his behalf. After 18 months of the defendant following up with King with no response, King’s explanation was that she had made a “typo” and that she meant to say that she would “not” file the petition on his behalf, costing him months of complications in his defense. When the defendant asked for more time and the right to file the petition after the deadline thanks to King dropping the ball, Judge Franklin turned him down. The defendant was on trial for murder; charges were dropped earlier this year. King’s behavior was bad enough that a Court of Appeals Justice took the rare step of going out of their way to write an opinion saying just that.
Mathis is a welcome change to the bench.
District Judge, 486th Criminal Court - Gemayel Haynes
Vivian King is running this race. Read my previous paragraphs or check out the Houston Chronicle article here to refresh yourself on that.
I give Roderick Rodgers credit for his grassroots efforts. The precinct chairs I know who blockwalk have said he does show up. He is also married to Judge Ramona Franklin. They have their own minds… but I am also not naive. I would help support my spouse in political campaigns. What kind of spouse wouldn’t?
My support goes to Gemayal Haynes, who has worked under two prosecutors in Harris County in the past. Now a public defender, Haynes’ knowledge of the bench has prepared him for the job. He will follow the law and advocate as he is allowed for improvements in the system so people will not be criminalized just because of their race or how much money they have in their pocket.
District Judge, 507th Family Court - Lillian Alexander
Court observers have critiqued the tone of the conversations in the 507th, and the Houston Bar Association poll for Texas attorneys did not return the most stellar results. Just because a majority of a sample feels a certain way isn’t a smoking gun for behavior, but it does raise questions about the court.
Lillian Alexander is sharp, politically engaged, and well regarded by her peers. She was active in supporting County Attorney Menefee in her first run, and has a reasonable vision for a smoother family court.
Alexander may be a challenger to the bench, but she has twelve years of experience in the court. There are times to stick with an incumbent based on experience, but if a court is calling for change and the challenger has the knowledge to do a decent job, I’m inclined to give that challenger a chance to show us what they’ve got.
Vote Alexander.
SD-15 - Molly Cook
Molly Cook is one of the most exciting grassroots activists to run in Harris County during my lifetime.
She’s an ER nurse by day (night? Whenever she is needed?), and she shows all the poise, healing, and organization needed to do that job well in everything she does. Cook is one of the key organizers of Stop TXDOT/I-45, a valiant effort to fight TXDOT’s destructive freeway expansion. Buoyed by that grassroots effort, she ran against John Whitmire and exposed many of the weaknesses of the corporate Democrat incumbent in a David vs. Goliath election. Molly was more effective at countering John Whitmire than anyone in our municipal election cycle.
Then, she and several master organizers carried their effort into passing Prop B, which reformed our city charter to give Houston and Harris County more power on the Houston Galveston Area Council (HGAC). HGAC is a voluntary association of regional and municipal bodies that coordinate on various inter-territory projects like roads or anti-flooding measures. Houston and Harris County get less votes than other, smaller counties do (aside from Ft. Bend). HGAC had leveraged its proportional power to support the highway against the Stop TXDOT coalition, so it was a smart and effective counter punch that expanded democracy in Harris County.
At a time when Republicans are spreading vile and racist rhetoric and siccing street gangs on drag shows, that’s exactly the kind of thinking we need to elevate and encourage in the party. Cook’s coalition is diverse, fearless, and heartfelt. She has never had an official title within it; she doesn’t need one. We all know what and who she is: the spark plug organizer who rallies masses to make things better.
Shoutout to Karthik Soora. He has energized people to engage this cycle, and is one of the great up and coming AAPI Harris County Democrats. His positions are well thought out and forward-thinking, and he has a good track record of work and party building.
HD-139- Rosalind Caesar
Rosalind is connected to her district. She’s a longtime precinct chair and has been a trustee for her municipal utility district, a thankless and difficult job that protects the interests of her community. She has relationships across every sector: public, private, religious, business, government, and educational institutions. She’s kind to people, super smart, and easy to work with. And she knows her district. She’s exactly who I want to see in Austin.
Shout-out to Mo Jenkins for taking a shot at becoming the first openly trans legislator in the Texas Lege. I hope we get to continue to see more of her in the political scene as time goes on.
HD-142- Danny Norris
Danny has done a good job serving as trustee on the Harris County Department of Education for six years. He knocks doors, raises money, and is good for the public and the party.
Harold Dutton is one of the biggest opponents of public education in the Texas Legislature. Houstonians know him well both inside and outside his district.
Representative Dutton's continuous propaganda refrain about public schools is to argue that they are failing, then defunding them and strangling them with state control from the bell towers in Austin. Harold Dutton is the main player who has gift-wrapped HISD schools and handed them to Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, and Mike Morath. As the architect of the legislation suggesting state takeover as a solution for what has been deemed “underperformance,” Dutton tethered the fate of HISD to test scores and the whims of our nastiest Republican aristocrats: the Trump wing of Texas.
Dutton has also been fairly apathetic and even cruel on trans and gay issues, once bringing up an anti-trans bill in committee as a retaliatory measure for his own bill having not passed earlier in the committee hearing. Grassroots groups responded to his comments by calling for his resignation.
Beating him won't be easy; any candidate has their work cut out for them in his district. Four candidates in the race all but guarantees a runoff.
But if there was ever a time to point to what is happening to HISD based on Dutton's judgment and tell the public about it, it's now, because HISD looks more dystopian than ever.
The district is now getting contorted and corporatized by a strange, wasteful profiteering character named Mike Miles in real time on live television. Miles is backed up by a shadowy board of managers that includes a former test prep lobbyist, a massive corporate landlord, and a woman who lost her shot at being democratically elected to the board of trustees yet was elected to oversee them. Students, parents, and teachers are feeling the effects.
Since Mike Miles took over, here is just a small sample of what had happened:
He has dismissed the contributions of librarians
He has turned libraries into discipline centers
He has slashed the budget
He has paid himself big money as a vendor of his own district
He has micromanaged schooltime policies down to the classroom and individual students levels
He put on a condescending theatrical performance that cost taxpayers nearly a half million dollars, after which one of the students spoke out and said it was “propaganda” and that they regretted performing in it
Administrators brought in five student leaders and asked them to spy on fellow students and teachers in order to bust any potential strikes
Teachers and other good staff have been pushed out
The Board of Managers have attempted to silence dissent at the meetings
A shadowy nonprofit backed by the Greater Houston Partnership has popped up to back the Miles agenda
Miles and the Board of Managers have clashed with students, parents, and teachers throughout the district
Dutton’s plan has been a disaster. He should be pushed out of office.
Danny Norris is the best choice in the race. For starters, he is the only challenger to Dutton who has a website.
But the case for Danny goes much deeper. He’s engaged in dozens of major community groups both traditional and newer throughout the Houston community. Norris’ government experience in the education sector as one of the most progressive members of a functioning, bipartisan board right here in Harris County, the Harris County Department of Education.
Norris entered that body as part of the electoral wave that established a Democratic majority on the board with which he, Andrea Duhon, and Richard Cantu have done good work. Says Duhon, a fellow progressive trustee who has served with him for six years, “Danny Norris has shown a commitment to public education through his dedication as an accountable Trustee for HCDE. He always considers how policy will affect the public he is serving, and will continue to show that service and dedication as a state representative.”
Norris and the rest of the board have brought resources to schools across Harris county, including HISD, including the Head Start program. HCDE’s adult education expands literacy and GEDs for adult workers. Norris led the effort to make sure contracting dollars with the department went to more small and minority owned businesses. He shows up to board meetings, does his homework, and makes change.
My hope is that Danny runs a precinct level ground game effort to voters that shows what good education policy looks like in contrast to the privatizing nature of the Dutton agenda.
HD-146- Lauren Ashley Simmons
HD-142 and HD-146 have similar dynamics. The incumbent for this office, Shawn Thierry, was once known for her advocacy for policies to curtail maternal Black mortality rates, an effort any thinking or feeling person can support. But over the last couple of years, she has also morphed slowly into one of the most socially conservative legislators in Houston.
That transformation is more than just a matter of political differences within the party; it has aligned her with the cruelty of the most rightwing elements of our government at a critical time in the history of Texas. Thierry crossed the aisle alongside Dutton to support senate bill 14, which bans gender affirming care for kids under 18. Then she went out of her way to support legislation empowering schools to ban books based on their content.
Thierry's (as well as Dutton’s) positions on these issues may be political, or ignorant in nature, or it may be a matter of her true ideology. Whatever it may be, none of it is excusable.
If it's political, she's using kids as fodder. If it's ideological, she isn’t aligned with the platform.
If it's out of ignorance, she should have educated herself on the matter. Whether or not children transition genders is a decision best left between the kids, parents, and medical professionals. It is no business of the government what medical decisions families decide to make together with professionals, and it certainly isn't up to Shawn Thierry or Ken Paxton's bigoted mafia to impose their will on those families.
Gender affirming care decisions are not made on snap judgment, and none of them are offered immediately to any kid that walks into a clinic. Like any medical decisions, they are made after diagnosis and discussion. The overwhelming majority of these forms of care are also reversible. Puberty blockers and hormones, for example, are only in effect for as long as the patient is taking them. They are often prescribed for issues other than gender transitioning as well.
Representative Thierry very easily could have educated herself on these matters by having a conversation with the Houston LGBTQ Political Caucus, or other organizations that align with many of the party's policies… but she didn't. She got on her high horse, rode into Austin, and rained fire on trans families that are already being harassed so badly that they're fleeing the state.
But times are changing. Thierry has to be deposed as part of what is now a clear and open civil rights fight, and there are two candidates trying to depose her: Ashton P. Woods, and Lauren Ashley Simmons. I am supporting Simmons.
Ashton is an icon in Houston, memorialized forever for his achievements in the murals of the city of Houston. He has the city’s respect, history in the movement, and he similarly knows that Thierry has to go for the good of the community.
Simmons is a true grassroots organizer who has done work in the community for a long time. She has been an organizer with the state employees union, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and a local chapter of Communication Workers of America. She has worked to help state agency workers overcome resourcing challenges; spent five years organizing teachers in suburban districts in Texas and fought Greg Abbott to build a base while simultaneously preventing union shutdowns in Austin; worked with retail workers in environments that were difficult to organize; and has built a chapter of more than 100 organized Black low wage essential workers from the ground up. Lauren can speak to the issues of wage theft and mis-classifications that cost working class people billions of dollars per year while the perpetrators skate without punishment. She has won some decent wins on that front, successfully lobbying Commissioners Court to create a Harris County body to which people could report wage theft issues.
Simmons also knows Houston, and she is a product of the education system here; she’s a 3rd Ward native who graduated from UT. The majority of her time with AFT was with the local chapter (Houston Federation of Teachers). She organizes in her community to get people into the process who don’t always pop up in traditional voter databases either because they are overlooked or can’t vote.
Simmons has raised her profile more recently with her advocacy work in HISD. In August, Simmons went viral for a pointed criticism of Superintendent Mike Miles at a public meeting about HISD policy. Miles has been notoriously bad in his handling of all things HISD, and Simmons was able to connect with millions of people on social media to catalyze her campaign. From there, she has lined up endorsements, run field, increased her war chest, and connected with activists all over the county (especially in her district).
Good candidate, strong campaign, great background, and a righteous fight… I’d vote for Simmons.
Justice, 1st Court of Appeals, Place 8 - Richard Hightower
So, quick overview of this kind of court:
They hear civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts, serving as the intermediate courts between the lower courts and the Texas State Supreme Court (TXSCOTUS).
These justices are on a panel of nine. They have their own chief justice. Think of the structure of the Supreme Court, but for a region of counties. This court includes cases from Austin County, Brazoria County, Chambers County, Colorado County, Fort Bend County, Galveston County, Grimes County, Harris County, Waller County, and Washington County.
The State of Texas hates lower courts. Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick both whine that the intermediate courts have gotten too liberal and want to take that power back. Countywide district court races are important, but these big seats are massive, overlooked targets of the far right in Texas. State Republicans specifically seek to control intermediate courts so they can kick back liberal rulings.
These courts aren’t exceptionally left, of course; They’re all majority Republican. They’re just a bit further removed and therefore by default more humanitarian than some of the other more high profile parts of our government. By nature, they can be swayed toward humanity at time like the law should be practiced because there is room for dissenters like Richard Hightower (and Meagan Hassan, who we will discuss in a moment) in those courts.
Richard Hightower is a sound jurist who sees the court as a collaborative endeavor. His experience allows him to write opinions that are effective at making his point and less likely to be overturned.
Once case exemplifying Hightower’s decisionmaking is that of Charlotte Marshall, an elderly woman with dementia, who was a resident at the Belmont Village assisted living center in Hunters Creek Village in Houston. While a resident, she was sexually assaulted in her room by an employee Of Belmont Village. Her children sued Belmont Village on Ms. Marshall's behalf for the physical injuries and emotional trauma that Ms. Marshall suffered during her sexual assault by its employee. Belmont Village asked that the claims against it be dismissed.
Belmont Village, a health care facility, argued that Ms. Marshall's claim was a health care liability claim, subject to the protections of the Texas Medical Liability Act. Belmont Village argued that all claims against it should be dismissed because the Marshalls had not complied with the technicalities of the Act.
The First Court of Appeals, Justice Hightower writing for the panel, held that this type of a sexual assault claim was not a health care claim, but rather it was a negligence premises liability claims and that Ms. Marshall's family could pursue their claims against Belmont Village.
The Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case leaving Justice Hightower's decision in place. (Belmont Village Hunters Village vs. Charlotte Marshall, 634 S.W.3d. (Tex.App-Houston [1st Dist.] 2020, pet.denied))
In another case, a family (the Shufka’s) sued the builder of their home contending that due to faulty workmanship their minor children had suffered significant physical injuries from being exposed to mold in the home. The builder claimed that the children's injuries could not be brought in court, but instead must be heard by an arbitrator because the parents had signed an arbitration agreement at the time that they purchased their home. The trial court denied the builder's request and ruled in favor of the Shufka's providing them with the right to a jury trial.
The First Court of Appeals, Justice Hightower writing for the panel, agreed and held that minor children's personal injury claims were not subject to the arbitration agreement the parents had signed and that the case could proceed with the right to a trial by jury. (Taylor Morrison of Tex., Inc. vs. Skufka, No. 01-19-0093-CV, 2020 WL 5823287 (Tex. App-Houston (1st Dist.l Oct. 1, 2020 (mem.op.) rev'd. 660 S.W.3d, 525 (Tex. 2023).)
Ultimately, The Texas Supreme Court reversed Justice Hightower's decision in that case and required the children's personal injury claims to be determined by an arbitrator, denying the children with the right to a trial by jury.
However, the dastardly actions of the state’s highest court do not undermine the good work of Hightower; thet simply demonstrate we need more justices like him, and less like the unanimous GOP majority on the Texas Supreme Court. Furthermore, Hightower’s ruling contributes to the body of law, establishing potential precedent for future rulings.
In addition to being a good jurist, Hightower gives to Democratic causes and to organizations and people who believe in our values.
Stick with another good incumbent. Vote Hightower.
Justice, 14th Court of Appeals, Place 6 - Meagan Hassan
Hassan has been remarkably effective at articulating law clearly to her colleagues and swaying them toward a just decision.
An example: In one criminal case heard by Hassan, a Black man was stopped by police in Waller County for a traffic violation. During the course of this 45-minute traffic stop, a robbery took place nearby. After releasing the man from the traffic stop, the officer learned of the robbery and went back to arrest the man for it. He was tried to a jury and convicted, and was then sentenced to 20 years in state prison.
On appeal, Hassan discovered the timeline of the traffic stop and the robbery created an impossibility that the man could have committed the crime, and was able to convince the panel that he was factually innocent. While factual innocence is no longer a valid reason to overturn a criminal judgment in Texas, Hassan was able to write an opinion that reversed and remanded the case to the trial court and showed that he could not have committed the crime. The trial court soon after dismissed the case and the man was released from prison only 2 years into a 20-year wrongful sentence. August v. State, 588 S.W.3d 704, 710 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2019, no pet.).
Another example: a parental termination case involved a Honduran immigrant and her two young children. She spoke no English, and when a neighbor called CPS to report her for neglecting her children, she cooperated fully with the investigation. The CPS investigator determined that the claims of neglect were untrue but asked her to take a drug test anyway. The test came back positive for trace amounts of drugs and her children were removed and put into foster care. She eventually could not complete the requirements of the family service plan (which was not provided to her in Spanish as required by law) and her rights to her children were terminated. On appeal, Hassan wrote for an en banc court holding (special case where all of the justices show up) that previous case law stating that children could be removed from their parents when the parents tested positive for drugs *without any connection to abuse or neglect* was incorrect and reversed 20-year precedent of our court. The Texas Supreme Court thereafter declined to take the case. (In re L.C.L., 599 S.W.3d 79, 84–86 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2020, pet. denied) (en banc)
Hassan is on the correct side of labor rulings. She wrote two rulings upholding labor rights in reference to the Houston firefighters’ cases (the Texas State Supreme Court later upheld one while denying the other). She has held that trucking companies are liable for failure to train their drivers when it leads to horrendous personal injuries, held that government agencies cannot escape liability because of immunities in all cases, and written proud dissents when necessary to preserve future precedent for a better state for the next generation.
Keep a good incumbent in office for an important seat. Vote for Meagan Hassan.
District Judge, 151st Civil Court - Mike Engelhart
Like Christian Menefee, Meagan Hassan, and other good incumbents, Judge Engelhart has aligned with our values. He is staunchly in favor of the First Amendment, delivering a clear rebuke of former Harris County treasurer and perennial candidate Orlando Sanchez when the politician attempted to sue a protester for $1 million in emotional damages for dousing Sanchez with four ounces of water. The protestor was a former student of HISD, and the incident took place across from HISD at a planned Sanchez presser three days before he exited the treasurer’s office after a grassroots defeat to Dylan Osborne. Engelhart’s ruling was later reversed (though the damages greatly decreased to the cost of dry cleaning), but the ruling is still written in ink, waiting to be used at an opportune time in the future as a way for another judge to protect the First Amendment.
Judge Engelhart has also been excellent at party building. He shows up, he knows everyone, he donates to good causes, and he’s smart, likable, and funny.
County Probate Court, #5 - Fran Watson
I am all in to support Fran Watson. The reason so many like me have joined the Fran Club is that we have met Fran Watson. Fran’s personal story is inspiring, her approach is thoughtful, methodical, and meaningful, and everyone likes her… because there is nothing not to like about Fran. She’s been on the municipal bench, has served in grassroots leadership roles throughout the county, listens better than anyone I know, and is extremely and eternally humble to the fact that she’s smart, kind, and brave. Everything about her life and work experience proves it.
I hope the other candidates stick around (I’ve met Troy Moore a couple of times) and grow a better Democratic Party with us, but I am all in for Fran.
TX-38 - Gion Thomas
Gion is an activist first. I respect his willingness to show up in the streets and in public forums to push for what he believes in. He has shown up to wait for long hours to testify at Spring Branch ISD schools meetings, an effort which has been led largely by my friend Diana Martinez Alexander and several other activists in that area. He made sure to weigh in specifically in favor of admonishing the district attorney Kim Ogg. He makes the party more true to its values.
Gion will be an activist for a long time to come and I am happy to give him my support.
Texas Railroad Commissioner - Bill Burch
This is a fairly easy pick: Burch’s opponent has voted in the last four Republican primaries (we do not know her prior history). You might be thinking: “What if she is from somewhere in Texas where Democrats often switch primaries because the general election is not competitive?” You can put that to rest; she’s in Houston.
Burch is running on issues that are close to the position itself. They’re not partisan, exactly, but you can see where he makes sure to express his values and beliefs by pointing out the need for exploited workers, especially those who are undocumented. Given Abbott’s policy of banishing undocumented people from Texas, Burch is making his big picture position clear.
You can read his full platform to decide what you think. I am voting for him.
Senate- Roland Gutierrez
When I previously wrote about the Senate race, I was undecided. Now, I am rolling with Roland.
Gutierrez was a fairly mainstream Democrat in the Texas Senate, and has moved a little to the left since he started to run. It may be mostly political, as the left lane in the primary is his main shot against Allred, or it may really be where his heart is.
Regardless, it is enough to have gotten my attention. I almost went to see him in Liberty County last week, where the county party hosted him. Liberty County’s Dems are tough; they have their work cut out to them in a county where they are outnumbered 4-1.
I guarantee Allred won’t make it out there. It’s not part of his strategy to engage grassroots Dems. He’s sent me at least a dozen texts begging for money. He’s spending that on more ads and texts asking for more money. The voice of the texts ranges from desperate to silly. And man, I am fine with silly but… is he really a silly guy? Is that who he is in his heart? He doesn’t seem like it.
Regardless, there will be no town halls or publicity stunts from Allred. Just a standard Beltway model campaign that begs for money, tries to look moderate, and plays to the most mainstream ideas possible in the target electorate.
And you know what? Maybe that strategy will work. Maybe running as a super mainstream politician who used to play football and won a US House seat will win him the primary. Maybe it’s smart to play the voters what they want to hear and say nothing original and hang out with your buddies in Congress. It’s not for me, but maybe it will work, for the primary at least. I can accept that.
But you know what I refuse to accept? Colin Allred voting for a resolution condemning “Joe Biden’s open border policies.”
It seems like piss poor politics; we’re not gonna peel off voters from Ted Cruz in Texas by sounding like Donald Trump on immigration.
But forget the optics. It’s immoral. It’s a lie in that Joe Biden doesn’t have an open border policy, and it frames undocumented immigrants the same way Tucker Carlson does. And it was MEANT that way, too. That’s why the Republicans put the resolution up in the first place. The sponsor made sure to use the term “illegal aliens” in his speech on the floor of the US House.
Roland Gutierrez, meanwhile, sounds like a regular left center Democrat… with a few brave positions. He took the risk of calling for a ceasefire. He has been hammering away on gun safety because he represents Uvalde. And he’s accessible, so he’ll talk to mainstream Democrats.
I know there are other candidates in the race. I’ve met at least one; Thierry Tchenko seems like a nice person. There are technically nine candidates in the race, after all, and I am not one to besmirch a candidate just because they are an underdog or because they are working class.
You have to show me some minimum viability manufacturing requirements though, and I do not know how anyone can win a senate race in a state the size of France based on a loose definition of “grassroots energy.” These folks don’t have enough reach to have a sit down, and they don’t have enough money to reach more than a few people, and they don’t have celebrity friends who can elevate them to a known quantity… so they’re going to have a hard time winning my vote. We need to at least run a meaningful race against Ted Cruz.
Even if Allred gets close (a BIG “if” if there ever was one), he’s not going to build infrastructure. His positions won’t elevate any major discussions. If anything, he has implicitly dragged the party to the right in his capacity as a House rep based on the border vote alone. And he’s note going to leave infrastructure behind.
Roland is a better bet on all fronts, and has won my endorsement.
A Note on Big Ticket Statewide Races
To be honest, I don't really know why we regularly spend millions on statewide races when we could be getting better returns by investing that money back into grassroots organizing. There are people all over Texas who are organizing clubs, knocking doors, increasing voter engagement and turnout, fundraising, protesting, packing public comment sessions, and recruiting others to do the same. Our limited funds are best spent feeding those grassroots organizing efforts.
I'm not saying to avoid donating to any particular race, or that Ted Cruz isn't scum, or that I wouldn't support a ticket. I'm just saying that statewide tickets in Texas have, with a couple of exceptions, not yielded much return for us as a party.
The best strategy for the Democratic Party is for stiff-spined, strong-minded, big-hearted grassroots people to build movements bottom up through organizing.
Principled people who support one another have the power to outcompete corrupt, special interest bullies by sticking together and organizing accountability movements both inside and outside the party.
Our first step is to rethink our model, though. Right now, the plan is to bomb the airwaves with tired media buys as a shortcut for organizing.
Isn't gonna work.
Paid media is useful, and campaigns need money, no doubt. And so does philanthropy and mutual aid and all of that.
But the Lincoln Project is fighting the last war. Home internet is turning 20 soon. We are well past TV spots determining elections. They're useful, but they can be defused.
There are much better options.
Organic community organizing beats massive, glitzy, multimillion dollar ad buys featuring surefire false start statewide candidates who can't get traction. With the exception of Beto and a few others, statewide candidates leave us with smoke. They generate no forward momentum. (I give Beto credit for making sure we had actual infrastructure after his race. S/O to Powered by People).
Funders have been writing $5,000 checks to a lot of statewide campaigns for decades and... for what? I mean, be a political consultant if you want, fine, but do we really need a huge media buy focused on Trump? Galas can be celebratory, but would you say our issue is that we don't have enough of them? A lot of consultants seem to be fleecing people for ineffective results. They lost their fingertip feel on the community long ago.
Meanwhile, I know hundreds of activists and organizers who can make a tangible result. They're not overly analytical. They're just good strategists who know their communities. You can fund 5-10 of those people for a year for a million dollar ad buy, and they'll work in alignment with their values, which means you get better returns on your investment into votes, culture, infrastructure, and morale.
You dump your ten million dollar commercial into a race in our community and give us 5 of those people with a little extra budget in a large race, and we might run you off the field. Our networks are already built. We don't have to figure out how to get the vendors to play well together like we're an ad agency. We're friends; we talk; we know each others' spouses, or at least their names. We know every corner, every coffee shop, every park and school in our precinct. We organize Houston together. We know how to recruit a sponsor for a school club, how to sign up for public comment, how to cut turf.
We are untapped potential that can be transformed into political energy.
My goal is to recruit and activate 1,000 grassroots activists-both paid and volunteers -to do regular work in Harris County toward a place where everyone has a life of dignity.
If you are interested in being a part of that through organizing, funding, or contributing in any way to that, and/or you want to learn to organize/activate, email me at mrdancohen@gmail.com.
About the Author
Daniel J. Cohen is an advocate in Houston. As one of the most active pro-democracy Houstonians since November of 2016 and the founder of Indivisible Houston, he has grown a volunteer army of more than 2,000 democracy advocates across the Houston area; led successful grassroots communications efforts to flip federal, state, and county seats (TX-07, HD-134, County Judge); secured earned media through traditional and social media channels estimated at more than $50 million in value with an all volunteer staff and an annual budget of less than $25,000; built coalitions with organizations, independent community leaders, and media at the local, state, and national level; and organized, promoted, and led some of the largest marches in the history of Houston.
Cohen has been published or quoted by Houston Chronicle, Texas Signal, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, WAPO, and other major media.