I met the owner of this vehicle last week. He and I are enrolled in a continuing ed class at Rice University in Houston, Inside the 2016 Election. I did not meet the retired Amy officer in the classroom, nor in the University’s parking lot. I met him last Monday at the Harris County Democratic Party Headquarters where I serve as a volunteer. Bill had come to purchase a few Hillary yard signs. I recognized him from class so I pulled out my phone and asked him if he owns the car above. Bill looked surprised and said “why yes!” I introduced myself and we quickly became friends. I told Bill his car is a hit on Facebook and Twitter.
Bill told me he lives in tea party (“fascists according to him) north Houston. He plants any kind of Democratic sign he can find so I gave him a Vote Democratic sign and a few Hillary/Tim pins. Obviously he has no room for another bumper sticker. He lives on a corner near a local elementary school. He said parents have to pass his house when driving their kids to school. Bill hopes his extensive military service will give his neighbors pause about their Party’s affiliation this year.
Bill is one reason why I believe Houston/Harris Co. will flip blue. There are plenty like him around the city. I meet them at the Party’s headquarters, at phone banks, at canvassing events, at local democratic club meetings.
A huge, diverse city that includes people from literally everywhere, Houston is an inclusive and tolerant city (except for a handful of right wing nut jobs but they are in the minority, though they can be the loudest). Trump reminds us of this Houston hate club. We remember how the far right demonized and killed Houston’s Equal Rights Ordinance by calling it the bathroom bill. They fear mongered men, dressed as women, would lurk in ladies rooms in order to commit rape. Trump embodies this kind of fear and intolerance.
Trump frightens immigrants who have settled here. The phones have been ringing off of the wall at the Harris County Democratic Party Headquarters. The Party had to assign two Spanish speakers to communicate with those with limited or no English. On Monday a Hispanic man walked in, handed me his voter card and said he wanted to vote. We sent him to a nearby poll with a sample ballot. He wanted to know how to vote a straight Democratic ticket. We were happy to show him how.
Trump disgusts most women, though some Republican women will end up voting for him. According to one of the professors in the class ,Inside the 2016 Election, the FBI’s announcement about Hillary’s ongoing email investigation took the focus off of the allegations of Trump’s sexual assaults. Republican women voters can let themselves “forget.”
An area Muslim wrote a letter to the editor in the Houston Chronicle. His party affiliation had been Republican because of the Party’s stand on abortion and religious values. But he will not vote for Trump, of course. A number of voter registration drives took place at the area’s mosques this year.
Actually there is scientific data to suggest Hillary will sweep Houston/Harris Co. Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice who does polling for a living, believes Hillary will sweep Harris County by 5-6 points. He also predicts Hillary will win the election. 48% of the Latinos polled who said they would vote, have already voted, according to Dr. Stein.
For the last several weeks I’ve listened to lectures presented by political scientists, demographers and journalists about the 2016 election. It’s been a thorough class covering national through local politics. Last Thursday night the Harris County’s Director of Communications and Voter Outreach showed us the nitty gritty of who votes in the County. I can’t really include the handouts here as they are in black and white and would be too difficult to interpret. But I’m passing the data along to one of my colleagues in the Texas Alliance of Progressive Bloggers. He’s our math guy so he can explain the data a lot better than me. I’lll share his reports in my future blog posts.
The lectures I’ve attended and the data I’ve seen confirms information I’ve known intuitively, based on my experience of living in Houston and my political activism here. I’ve witnessed first hand how the city’s demographics have shifted. The make up of today’s Houston is a mirror for the rest of the country in the future. Whether or not Donald Trump, his Party and his ilk like it.
Early voting turnout in Harris County was huge. I voted during the first week on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. I thought I’d breeze through. Wrong. I waited for 45 minutes to vote. I almost cried as I clicked on Hillary Clinton/Tim Kaine.
Houston Fiesta Mart, Early Voting, October 27, 2016
Tuesday can’t get here soon enough.
Update: Just in from Jeff Weems:
Today, Harris County broke all records by voting 105,005 EV and 2882 by mail, for a final day voter turnout of 107,887. This clobbers the old very strong final day numbers of 88,371 in 2012 and 87,285 in 2008.
As far as total votes, just wow.
2008: 678,312 EV, 76,187 Mail, 754,499 Total 2012: 700,216 EV, 66,310 Mail, 766,526 Total 2016: 882,580 EV, 94,699 Mail, 977,279 Total
Did you get that? We were 22K shy of One Million votes before election day. Good damn grief. We voted 43.73% of our entire registered voter population through today, also a record. November 8 at 7:00:01 will be fascinating!
YES!
