Opinion: Kevin de León’s defenders emerge, but they’re still a minority
I am going to focus today (and throughout) on what this particular opinion piece says about the current state of Texas and Texas’ future.
We’ve had a string of recent (and recent for the Democrats) negative opinion pieces that have focused on Kevin and Texas’ future. The “pros” focus on the party’s role in redistricting, and the ‘cons’ focus on the state’s economic prospects. Here’s the thing? All of these arguments are flawed.
When the Dallas Morning News recently profiled Kevin and his impact on the state and wrote:
“He’s a guy who can be both the state’s worst nightmare and its best hope.”
The piece goes on to discuss several key areas, including Kevin’s economic outlook, and his personal legacy. While his economic outlook certainly has changed, and he’s had to work harder to turn things around, it’s difficult to see any reason why today’s Republican Party or Kevin’s own political party would want to do anything that would hurt him.
The most recent attack came from the Texas Tribune, in a piece which was much more in-depth and, sadly, rather insulting than the Dallas Morning News piece.
In response to one of Kevin’s proposals to help with the state’s budget, the Tribune wrote:
“Kevin de León, the millionaire Republican who has spent three decades running the party’s campaign arm, said Monday he’s going to challenge a key provision because of his belief that Texans still have a right to be represented by their own representatives.
“The Tribune’s editorial board, in a column earlier this week, said ‘de León would like the Legislature to pass legislation so he can get the money to hire a lobbyist to fight this law.’