Early Voting In Texas’ Runoff Elections Starts Monday

Early voting in Texas’ runoff elections begins Monday, June 29.

As a resident of Travis County, I will request the Democratic Party ballot and then vote in six runoffs. One of the runoff contenders is Chrysta Castañeda for Texas Railroad Commissioner. This is one of the most important statewide offices in Texas. I support Castañeda because she will bring the proper background and point-of-view to the job.

What is the Texas Railroad Commission? TRC regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining. Despite its name, it ceased regulating railroads in 2005. The economy of the state—which would rank as the 11th largest nation in the world were TX a nation—is intricately tied to oil and gas. Thus, the three people who act as Railroad Commissioners are critical players on the local, national, and international stages.

Texas’ energy sector has experienced a rapid, significant decline since January due to the COVID pandemic. June’s @txrrc Energy Minute highlights the drop in the state’s rig count and drilling permits since January. #txlege #txenergy pic.twitter.com/1wAn15mOrv

— Railroad Commission of Texas (@txrrc) June 26, 2020

For more on the TRC, see this “About Us” video:

Here’s A Memorable Line: “It’s Simple. Keep Dimple.”

I will have the chance to vote for Judge Dimple Malhorta.

I bring her campaign forward here because she’s getting her message out with the most basic form of video. No voice over, no shoot, very little post, and it’s up on YouTube.

“It’s Simple. Keep Dimple.” is also the kind of call-to-action that helps people remember the candidate. The line fails to indicate why voters would want to keep her as a judge, so it’s not working from this point-of-view. But is it enough to invite a voter to learn more? It worked on me.

Dr. Pritesh Gandhi for Congress

Dr. Gandhi is running to unseat the incumbent Republican in the 10th Congressional District, which stretches from the northwest Houston suburbs to Austin.

The good doctor is running the above ad on local TV consistently.

He also appears on CNN to help inform Texans and the world about the public health failures here in Texas.