Early voting for local elections in Texas starts today, April 24th. Local elections are for cities, school districts, and special districts such as college districts and hospital districts. In Texas, local elections are “nonpartisan.” This word causes a lot of consternation and confusion, so we’re going to discuss exactly what that means and doesn’t mean.
What “nonpartisan” means to local Texas elections is that candidates appear on the ballot without their party affiliation (Republican, Democrat, Independent, Reform, Communist, Super-Duper Socialist Communist Workers Revolutionary, etc.), and likewise, we can’t indicate our party affiliation on printed material, like signs.
This is because local elections don’t have Primary Elections, which is where all the candidates within a given party duke it out to be that party’s nominee in the general election. An obvious example of this was in the 2016 Presidential election when 17 Republican candidates all ran against one another in the Republican Primary and 7 Democrat candidates all ran against one another in the Democratic Primary. Donald Trump emerged the victor from the Republican Primaries and Hillary Clinton emerged from the Democratic Primaries.
We don’t have any of that in Texas local elections. We’re just all one big hodgepodge of candidates on the ballot (even if there are only two candidates, which is still a hodgepodge for this example).
So without an “R”, a “D”, an “I”, or a “SDSCWR” next to our name on the ballot, does that mean we don’t stand for anything? Does it mean the candidates have no values or beliefs? Do you, the voters want us to have no values or believes? Of course not, that’s just silly.
Quote Popeye: “I am what I am.”
While we may have “nonpartisan” elections, there’s no such thing as a “nonpartisan” candidate. We all are what we are, we believe what we believe, and our values are our values. But do YOU know what we believe? Every candidate for any office has a political leaning. All too often, however, candidates hide behind the “nonpartisan” nature of local elections in Texas to avoid telling you what they believe. Fully two-thirds of people want to know whether someone is a Republican or Democrat, but I can’t count how many times I’ve heard from someone that they asked that of a local candidate and received the reply, “This is a nonpartisan election.” That’s a non-answer worthy of a would-be politician. Does that mean they don’t believe in anything, or that they don’t want to tell people what you believe?
You, the voter, DESERVE to know.
There are three main reasons that people affiliate with a given political party:
- Because your parents did (that’s a bad reason)
- Because you think it’s trendy (that’s an even worse reason)
- Because that party, out of the major options available, ostensibly best represents your values
So again, we ask, do you really want to your elected officials to believe in nothing, or worse, hide from you what they believe in?
No. You deserve to know.
I genuinely don’t know why local elections in Texas were originally made by law to be “nonpartisan.” County elections in Texas are partisan, and they’re pretty local. Maybe the idea was to force voters to really research the candidates at the most local level. However, it’s resulted in abysmally low voter turnouts in local elections, and no wonder–the voters can’t tell what anyone believes. At least party affiliation gives a rough indicator.
Make no mistake, I don’t like the two-party system in America. George Washington didn’t even like it when it was a three-party system. It results in tribalism. I wrote two years ago about this in my article, Communification: Seven Appeals to the American People. However, as everyone knows, the two major parties are locked in a standoff regarding the two-party system where the first one who blinks loses. The first party to split into two (or more) hands a monopoly on government to the other party. While I don’t like the two-party system, I don’t have a solution to the standoff. I wish I did.
In the meantime, as long as we have this system, I’m a Republican and I don’t hide it from anyone. I also gladly talk with everyone, of any political stripe. I represent everyone in Plano and have a 100 percent meeting policy. I will always genuinely listen and will always genuinely consider your input.
I will also always genuinely let everyone know transparently what I stand for and what you can expect with me in office. I’ve always said that politicians are supposed to (yet rarely do) tell you clearly what they stand for and what they’ll do if elected, then leave it up to the people to determine if that’s who they want representing them. If not, I’m a big boy, and I can take it. But if you DO, I have a sacred duty to uphold what I represented to you, and I’ve done exactly that for the past four years you’ve allowed me to serve you.
I will always tell you what I stand for because you DESERVE to know.
