Too Close To Call Podcast

This is Too Close To Call, my musings on politics and more. Sign-ups make me happy.

I’m ranting again — a day earlier this week to recap what happened in Texas, which kicked off 2022 primary voting.

This #Rant will cover 3 races: The Henry Cuellar-Jessica Cisneros Democratic primary congressional runoff (767 votes!), the Ken Paxton-George P. Bush Republican primary runoff for attorney general and the governor’s race, which is free of a runoff and is set for a general election between Beto O’Rourke and Gov. Greg Abbott.

Pollster and strategist John Couvillon helped inform this conversation. You can follow his work here.

#MamaCat told me to tighten The Rant up, so I capped at 15 minutes. No excuses.

Apologies for the abrupt pull-out but I value your ears!

Let me know if you like or dislike what you hear and why.

And if you like, be a dear a share ————>

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidcatanese.substack.com/subscribe

I’m trying a ‘lil experiment this week — a Rant, via the audio function here at our Substack HQ.

I wrestled with how to go about this. One topic for 10 minutes? 3 topics over 30? Is 10 minutes too short, 30 too long? I still don’t know, but now you’re here to tell me.

I ended up settling on a single topic: A court case in Texas over a provision of a new voting law there that opens up public officials to potential prosecution if they solicit people to vote by mail.

That’s right: Simply encouraging people to vote by mail could send a local election official to jail. That’s the heart of the case, but also emblematic of the voting rights battles brewing all over the country. If you’d like to read the text of the Texas’ legislation (S.B. 1) yourself, click HERE. (You’ll find the relevant provision on solicitation on Page 19.)

I chose to zone in on this case (Longoria vs. Paxton) because Texas kicks off our 2022 election season, with early voting beginning Monday for their March 1 primaries. This audio RANT is a raw 21 minutes, unedited, imperfect; mostly stream-of-conscious, but hopefully genuine and informed.

Let me know whatcha think.

If you’re already a subscriber, thank you. If you aren’t and like this post, please consider signing up. And as always, sharing and liking my work is always helpful for the cause.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit davidcatanese.substack.com/subscribe