In the last month, a coterie of tea party and religious right activists have been trying to get David Barton to primary John Cornyn from the right in 2014. As I mentioned on Friday, America's favorite fundie pseudo-historian was giving very serious thought to running, saying that he would get in if Texans spoke loud enough.
Well, earlier today, Barton made his decision. He announced on Glenn Beck's radio show that he isn't running.
“My family and I have carefully prayed about and seriously weighed the encouragement from so many people we respect who have asked me to run for the Senate,” Barton said in a statement. “But right now, I believe my role is to continue educating, equipping and inspiring citizens through the work we do at WallBuilders.”
Barton said on Glenn Beck’s radio program that based on research he and his team did, the race seemed “winnable,” but right now the “time is just not right.”
“This is a good thing and a bad thing,” Beck said, “because do you feel that at some point you might run for Senate?”
“Oh I think that’s definitely a possibility,” Barton replied. “Yes sir.”
Watch the full appearance
here (sorry, it won't embed).
It's too bad. The folks at PFAW's Right Wing Watch and Talk2Action have amassed a good-sized dossier on Barton--one that would have been rolled out almost as soon as he got in. The Jefferson Lies fiasco would have been just the tip of a very huge iceberg. And there's a very good possibility he would have won the nomination, given how fundified the Texas base is. Oh well--next year won't lack for elephant-on-elephant violence.
Even without Barton getting in, Texas Democrats need to step up to the plate for this race, and fast. As it stands now, we've only got a "some dudette" running on the Democratic side for this seat, Maxey Scherr. Apparently she's been so underwhelming there's no listing at all on ActBlue for her. We held Cornyn to only 54 percent of the vote in 2008, which is pretty underwhelming by Texas standards. Someone needs to get in this race, and soon.
