Should be an interesting primary.
Rosey Ramos Abuabara
Rosalinda “Rosey” Ramos Abuabara, organizer of a 2017 LGBTQ pride flash mob across the street from the home of then-mayor Ivy Taylor, has filed to run for the congressional seat now held by Republican Will Hurd.
Her bid to represent the 23rd District will pit her in a 2020 Democratic primary against Air Force veteran Gina Ortiz Jones and journalist Liz Wahl.
Though Ortiz Jones will likely benefit from the the publicity she earned from her 2018 bid, Ramos Abuabara says she is unfazed.
“She may have some name recognition, but she didn’t win,” Ramos Abuabara said Thursday. “She outspent Will Hurd, and she still didn’t win. So I’m not sure how she’s going to win this time.”
Ramos Abuabara is counting on her involvement with the local LGBTQ community to provide a hometown base.
“I have two sons that are gay,” she says, adding that one of them is a staff member for Mayor Ron Nirenberg’s re-election campaign.
Here’s a brief video in which she announced her candidacy. No campaign presence yet, though you can find Abuabara on Facebook here. Gina Ortiz Jones is the known commodity here as the 2018 nominee, but Abuabara may get a boost from what should be very high primary turnout if she’s the only Latinx candidate on the ballot. It’s still early days, so we’ll see if that remains the case.
Meanwhile, in CD21:
Despite reverberating reports overnight in the Twitterverse that former state Sen. Wendy Davis has indeed decided to run for Congress in TX-21 – currently held by Republican Chip Roy – Davis told the Chronicle this morning that she has not yet made a decision.
“I intend to make a decision, and then an announcement about the decision, probably in about three weeks. Very soon,” she said. “For me, I need to decide whether it’s best for me and my family, first and foremost. And secondly, whether I’m the best person to take this challenge on.”
There were conflicting reports emanating from a Texas Observer gala Thursday evening. Forrest Wilder of Texas Monthly, Gus Bova of the Observer, and Lauren McGaughy of the Dallas Morning News each reported on Twitter a statement from Austin businessman Marc Winkelman (given the evening’s Philanthropy Award) that Davis had told him that she intended to challenge Roy (i.e., run for the Democratic nomination). Davis was also in attendance – a subsequent Tweet from McGaughy said she had since talked to Davis, who told her that she had not yet made a decision.
Nevertheless, the non-announcement announcement quickly went viral.
“I was really caught off-guard,” Davis told me this morning. “Marc is a very, very dear friend, and he’s been encouraging me, but he jumped the gun a little bit.”
I saw this on Twitter on Friday, and am mostly including this here 1) in case you saw the “she’s in!” tweets without seeing the followup, and 2) to note her timeline of making a decision within three weeks. That would kick off her campaign just at the beginning of the Q3 fundraising period, if Davis chooses to run. Whether or not she does, Jennie Lou Leeder is also there.
Not exactly related, but Scarface, from the Geto Boys has announced as a candidate for Houston city council, district D!
“Yeah, it’s time to do it like a G.O. once again
You know in 1989 we knocked on the door
In 1990 we beat on the door
Now it’s 2019 and we fixen’ to kick this city council in”