In Friday’s episode of Just This, Rick and I discuss several high-profile runoff election races this week that most impact San Antonio, including those for U.S. Congressional Districts 21 and 23; the contest to replace longtime Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio (in Texas House District 121); and the very low voter turnout in them all.
In the congressional races, we examine whether gender representation gains being touted nationally will manifest locally next fall in the District 23 race. Iraq veteran and former defense intelligence officer Gina Ortiz Jones trounced her Democratic rival, former teacher Rick Treviño, to earn the right to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes).
We also look at an interesting race shaping up in Congressional District 21 to replace U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio), who has long represented the San Antonio-to-Austin district but saw his support eroding before announcing his retirement. In that race, tech entrepreneur and military veteran Joseph Kopser, a Democrat, will face off with conservative Republican Chip Roy, a protégé and former senior staffer of several top Texas Republicans including U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Join us every Friday for Just This. Listen in and send us your feedback. Just This, produced by Photo Editor Scott Ball, will be available here on the Rivard Report and on iTunes and Stitcher at 5 a.m.
I get confused about equal representation based upon identity category. Why does it matter that if we have 13% black population that we MUST have 13% of our representation be black, or the same thing for the 39% of Hispanics. To me that just sound so backwards of progressive thinking. You’re categorizing and highlighting something as important along those exact superficial lines we are all trying to steer away from.
Is that supposed to be some sort of an admission that in order to secure interests for Mexican Americans that at least the exact percent representation should reflect the population? Is that really a good metric?
I’m a white male and I have no problem about the “first Latina” or “first Black woman” or “LGBTQ”. Power to those people. Seriously great for them. I won’t loose any sleep over this. Did you think it would have every straight white male weeping to themselves in the night? I really don’t care what you look like as long as you make some sense. It seems kind of racist/sexist/just plain backwards that it is so important to everyone to hit these numbers. It’s that kind of talk that makes me hate the democrats. Seriously.
It is the same thing that confuses me with equality of opportunity vs equality of outcome.
Using exact numbers in the total population as a metric does not mean you will equally represent the views and beliefs of your population, but just superficial things like race, sexual orientation, and gender. To me those aren’t as important as what you stand for. Unless you are somehow being racist or sexist by suggesting that if you are of a certain race you will think a certain way? Therefore only YOU can represent this group or that group fairly. Why? Because you match the color of their skin? Or if you are a woman you will think specifically one way? Does no one else see the blatant trap in this line of thinking?