The Horrifying Campaign of David Dewhurst

I have long been hesitant to jump into the fray over the upcoming Texas senate primary run-off between Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz.  Truth is, I didn’t vote for either of them in the initial primary.

I do not believe Cruz is the Tea Party light bringer that many on the right have claimed.  If anything I expect he will vote as a middling conservative somewhere between Kay Bailey Hutchinson and Rand Paul.  However, the campaign waged by David Dewhurst has become so disgusting, so corrosive, and so beneath the dignity of both the state of Texas and the office of the Lieutenant Governor that I feel obligated as a Texan and as a Republican to call out this behavior and implore my fellow Texans to reject it by rejecting David Dewhurst.

I have never been as ashamed of a Texas politician as I am of David Dewhurst today. Recent attack ads have attempted to paint Cruz as everything from a communist sympathizer to somehow responsible for youth suicides. The invectives and vitriol of Dewhurst and his co-conspirators are more akin to the propaganda of the Iranian mullahs than a race for US senate. The stretches of logic and reality needed to make these connections defy common sense and common decency.  If Dewhurst and the DC character assassins are allowed to win, it will set a new and terribly low bar for our politics and, more importantly, for our civic discourse.

Moreover, the deafening silence of the elected Texas Republicans is appalling. Governor Rick Perry and all of the legislators that have endorsed Dewhurst should be shamed into withdrawing that support in light of these scurrilous lies. It should be made clear that most of them are supporting Dewhurst not because they believe in him or even like him, but to get him out of Texas for their own political purposes.  It is shameful and opportunistic.

David Dewhurst is burning down the temple around him and our elected leaders are cheering him on. If he does win, he will enter the senate as the most distrusted and disrespected member of a body with approval rating in the single digits. He will not be able to effectively represent the interests of the state or the people in light of these deplorable tactics and the questions they raise about his character.

While I did not vote for him in the primary, nor am I in any way associated with his campaign, I am now enthusiastically supporting Ted Cruz for one simple, obvious reason…he is not David Dewhurst.

I will work tirelessly to defeat the architects of the Dewhurst slime machine in future elections here in Texas, but we all must stand up for decency, civility, and honesty in the process by rejecting David Dewhurst and nominating Ted Cruz for the United States Senate.