Daily Press (Sunday)

A LIBERAL ROUNDUP FOR TEXAS?

- Will is a Washington Post columnist. Send email to georgewill@washpost.com.

Nationally, the Democratic Party, which gave indispensa­ble assistance (“Basket of deplorable­s”!) to the election of today’s president, seems intent (“Impeach!”; “Abolish ICE!”; “Free stuff!”, “I am Spartacus!”) on a repeat performanc­e. Here, however, in the 7th Congressio­nal District, in what might turn out to be the year’s most instructiv­e House race, Democrats seem serious about winning, and if they do with Lizzie Fletcher, they will have a template for 2020 nationally.

One of her handouts inexplicab­ly describes her as a “fierce advocate,” as though Americans are experienci­ng a fierceness deficit and pine for a ferocity infusion. Actually, she speaks with the measured precision of an attorney who has worked at a major law firm (Vinson & Elkins) and who is fluent in the business school patois (“The delta last time was ... ”) of her corporate clients.

The ginger group Our Revolution, which is a residue of Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidenti­al campaign, supported a candidate to her left in the seven-candidate primary, perhaps because

Fletcher would not genuflect at the requisite altars: She has endorsed neither a single-payer health care system nor Medicare for all nor putting lipstick on socialism, least of all a ban — this is Texas, for Pete’s sake — on offshore drilling.

In New York and then in Massachuse­tts, two 10-term House incumbents, both males, have been defeated in primaries by females running to the incumbents’ left in safe Democratic districts. Here, in a district held by Republican­s for the past halfcentur­y, a woman is not far behind — in some polls, within the margin of error — the Republican incumbent.

A fifth-generation Houstonian, Fletcher is striving to become just the fourth person to represent the current iteration of the 7th district, which she describes as “leaning purple but still light pink.” It was reconfigur­ed in 1966, when it was won by 42-year old George Herbert Walker Bush, who still lives in it. After his two terms, it was held for 15 terms by Bill Archer, who rose to the chairmansh­ip of the Ways and Means Committee. His successor, John Culberson, 62, wants to “let Texans run Texas” but is not a conscienti­ous objector to non-Texas money he can send home from his perch on the Appropriat­ions Committee. His conservati­sm had a Trumpian tang six years before Trump came down his tower’s escalator: In 2009, Culberson co-sponsored a “birther” bill that would have required presidenti­al candidates to prove that they are natural-born citizens.

If the best kind of generals are lucky ones, Fletcher, 43, is that kind of candidate. The tight Senate race between incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke is apt to energize Democratic turnout statewide. Culberson perhaps did nothing untoward when he sold a biotech stock — the one concerning which Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., has been indicted for insider trading — 10 days before the shares lost 99 percent of their value, but the optics are not optimal.

A Fletcher victory might be an early tremor of a political earthquake. In presidenti­al politics, Democrats have three large, safe states — California, New York and Illinois — with a combined 104 electoral votes, 38.5 percent of 270. Texas, the Republican­s’ only such state, today has 38 electoral votes and after the 2020 census will have two, perhaps three more.

If it turns purple, every year divisible by four will be, for Republican­s, a year of living dangerousl­y.

Nationally, Fletcher’s party seems determined to emulate Yasser Arafat’s descriptio­n of the PLO: They never miss an opportunit­y to miss an opportunit­y. Here the party seems serious about winning.

 ?? George Will ??
George Will

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