DAY FORTY-FIVE - SRI KULKARNI

Oct 13

Day Forty-five | Sri Kulkarni | TX-22
772 Sawbuck Patriots | $8326 pledged today | $416,446 donated overall

Team:

THE SITUATION: Thank you for those last two days of heartland focus - but Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. We're in TEXAS, y'all. In the Fightin' Twenty-Second district, which is found in suburban Houston, and encompasses much of Sugar Land and Missouri City, as well as some smaller towns and unincorporated areas nearby.

You know Houston - currently the fourth-biggest city in these here United States of America, but wasn't even top-ten in the 1950s? Houston, the most diverse city in the NATION, according to many metrics? Houston, one of only five US cities to ever surpass 2M in population? (Philadelphia used to be in the club, and you already know about NY, LA, and Chicago.) Houston, the city with the nation's third-biggest land area (looking at you, Jacksonville and Anchorage), with relatively low population density, and plenty of room to overtake Chicago by about 2030 as the nation's third most populous city, unless the rising water eats it up?

That Houston?

Yeah. We're there. Under 40% white, 25% Latinx, 19% Asian, 13% Black, fast-growing, fast-expanding, looking more different every day.

And while it's quickly changing, this district has recent been an R +10 registration district. It's been represented by retiring Rep. Pete Olson for the past six terms. Olson is retiring, after narrowly defeating our candidate two years ago, and after seeing his winning percentage drop sixteen points in four years, and after correctly reading the writing on the wall.

He's also retiring after being a JACKASS. Two years ago, in their race, Outgoing Rep. Olson attempted to tarnish our candidate by jumping up and down and saying "Pakistani" a lot, and claiming that Pakistanis killed 3000 Americans on 9/11.

A) No, there were no Pakistani terrorists who participated in 9/11. B) The candidate he was attempting to paint as a Pakistani terrorist is Indian.

(Narrator voice: "Come on, man, if you're gonna attempt one of those broad-brush tarnish things, try to get ANY PART OF IT correct. I mean...")

That wasn't all. This dude Olson said in a radio interview that Bill Clinton had admitted to the murder of one of his White House aides, and threatened to kill another one. (Incorrect, obviously.) He worked to try and impeach Attorney General Eric Holder (a laughable attempt that went nowhere, naturally.) He's a hard-core, hard-right Republican, but the changing district has driven him from office. (Thankfully.) And now this district, once represented by well-known Rs like three-time presidential candidate Ron Paul and convicted money launderer/Dancer With The "Stars" Tom DeLay, is a potential red-to-blue flip seat. (Wonderfully.)

Texas has a lot of remarkable politics, doesn't it?

THE COMPETITION: Troy Nehls. He's an Iraq war vet, with a master's degree from University of Houston-Downtown. (That university needs some rebranding, I think; awkward name.) He's spent a lifetime in law enforcement, working in the Richmond, TX police department, and serving as constable and then sheriff of Fort Bend County, which is his current role.

His stated rationale for running for office is to protect oil and gas jobs in Texas. That was how he got into the race, and he's proven an awkward candidate, as he tries to find a resonant message that expands upon that one. During the primary, he put up a giant splash page on his website advertising how he was super-loyally Standing with President Trump - but as soon as he won and the general election began, that splash page Mysteriously Disappeared. (Maybe Scooby Doo and the gang can find it!)

At present, Nehls is frantically running towards the middle - avoiding talking about Trump any longer, supporting medical plans which sound suspiciously like Obamacare, and so on. Trump's brand is growing ever more toxic in suburban Texas.

And Nehls needs to find something to talk about, because his record is coming back to haunt him. He was fired from the Richmond PD in '98 after committing a whopping nineteen violations in one year, and in his current job, he has been warned by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards that his jail needed reform - and quickly - after two inmate deaths over two months.

And now he's dodging debates with his opponent. (And in the same situation, mightn't you?)

Sigh.

OUR CANDIDATE: Sri Preston Kulkarni. A career US Foreign Service officer, he's a smart fellow. He's been posted to Russia, Iraq, Taiwan, Jamaica and Jerusalem, working to further US interests in some of the toughest, most complex places in the world. He's got an masters degree in Public Administration from Harvard. He speaks WAY more languages than you or I do - he can talk about current events and ask for your vote in Spanish, Hindi, Mandarin, Russian, Hebrew, and even English. And his campaign is doing outreach in SIXTEEN languages, including Tamil, which would charm my mother-in-law no end. His own mom can trace her lineage back to the former President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston - and that's probably worth a few points on the ballots filled out in this particular town.

Kulkarni is both outraising Nehls and out-working him, which you've GOT to do when the other team has registered far more voters than your own. Taking nothing for granted after coming close two years ago, he's neck and neck or better in the polls, and taking advantage of the slow blue shift happening in Texas suburbs. The professional handicappers class rate this race anywhere from slight R lean to toss-up. But Sri can do this. Not only does THE MATH SAY HE CAN WIN, but
गणित कहता है कि वह जीत सकता है, LAS MATEMATICAS DICEN QUE PUEDE GANAR, המתמטיקה אומרת שהוא יכול לנצח, математика говорит, что он может выиграть, and 数学说他可以赢.

(That's the most fun one of those we've done so far, huh?)

Sawbuck Patriots, it's go time: click HERE to send $10 (or more!) to Sri's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8326 today.

Thank you!

- Alex / www.sawbuckpatriots.com

Alex Clemens

DAY FORTY-FIVE - SRI KULKARNI

Sawbuck Patriots, it's go time: click HERE to send $10 (or more!) to Sri's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $8326 today.

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