Looking Forward In The New Year

This is the time of year when you’ll see a lot of year in review articles but I prefer to look forward so let’s look at some important issues our nation will be addressing very soon and what we can do about them. Next week our members of congress will be back in their Washington, D.C. offices and Donald Trump’s potential trial in the Senate looms large now that the House has voted to impeach him. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has so far withheld the articles of impeachment from the Senate because the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who controls the agenda there has suggested that he might not allow witness testimony or demand documents from the Trump administration. The American people deserve a thorough trial based on the facts and that can only happen if witnesses to the actions of the president and his appointees are required to testify publicly. Of course, no trial would be complete without documentary evidence from the White House.

Since one of our senators, John Cornyn, is the second most powerful Republican we, the citizens of Texas, have an opportunity and a duty to try to persuade him to demand that witnesses like former member of the National Security Council John Bolton and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney be called and documents provided so that the American people are assured of a fair trial. It doesn’t hurt that Cornyn is up for re-election and that Texas has become more competitive since Trump became president so our senator is likely to consider how his behavior is viewed by voters more than he might in other years. You can make your views known to Senator Cornyn by calling his San Antonio office at (210) 224-7485. While you’re at it take another moment to call our other senator, Ted Cruz, with a similar message, his office number is (210) 340-2885.

The next big event this year is the March 3^rd primary election where Democrats and Republicans will have the opportunity to choose their candidates for offices from president down to county commissioner. In Guadalupe County the only state offices with a Democratic primary are for seats on the Fourth Court of Appeal and there are no county offices being contested at all. There are 17 names on the Democratic presidential primary ballot though only 15 are running nationwide campaigns and of those only 8 seem to have any real chance of earning the right to run in the November general election. Those that appear to be competitive are Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg, Cory Booker, and Pete Buttigieg. Early voting in Texas starts February 18 so it’s not too early to start investigating who you’ll want to vote for if you haven’t already started or made up your mind.

The Democratic primary for U.S. Senate is also a hotly contested race with 12 candidates and deserves your close attention as well since Beto O’Rourke’s close loss in 2018 shows that Texas is truly a competitive state. There is a very real chance our primary winner could end up as our next U.S. Senator. Of the 12 only 5 appear to have garnered enough financial support to run professional campaigns statewide. M. J. Hegar, Chris Bell, Amanda Edwards, Royce West, and Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez have all visited in Guadalupe County or nearby. It’s time to do your research on them as well.

Tomorrow morning take 5 minutes and call our senators and let them know you expect them to serve our nation over their party, it’s important.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 1, 2020