Texas Flushes Gohmert

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

This week Texas hosted the nation's first primary elections for 2022, and even though there wasn't much in the way of surprises, Tuesday did appear to bring an end to one of the state's most embarrassing political careers.   Louie Gohmert, an outspoken and often under-informed GOP US House member from the 1st District of Texas, chose not to run for a tenth term this year and instead sought the Republican nomination for Texas attorney general.    

Gohmert, who has been a member of the US House of Representatives since January of 2005,  managed to create and maintain a high profile by making outrageous statements that quickly morph into headlines.  In 2012, for instance, he suggested that the shooting at a movie theatre in Aurora, Colorado, a shooting in which twelve were killed and seventy wounded, could have been avoided if more of the theatre-goers had been armed.   

Last year Gohmert was subjected to some well deserved national derision after suggesting to representatives of the National Forest Service that changing the orbit of the earth or the moon might solve the issue of climate change.  He also characterized the January 6th rioters at the Capitol as "people without any firearms coming into a building," and he promoted a falsehood that the US military had seized a server with presidential votes in Europe after the 2020 election.

Gohmert was one of three GOP challengers to Ken Paxton, the incumbent Texas attorney general.    Paxton is currently under an FBI investigation over accusations related to misuse of office.   Paxton is also facing a trial on charges of securities fraud, and a civil suit related to his firing of four individuals (whistle-blowers) who ratted him out to the FBI.

But Louie Gohmert's dreams of returning to Texas and completing his political career with a cushy job in Austin evaporated on Tuesday when he came in dead last in the four-way primary race on Tuesday.  The incumbent, Ken Paxton, placed first but without a majority of the votes, so he will face the second place finisher, state land commissioner George P. Bush,  in a runoff in late May.

But regardless of who wins the Republican nomination for attorney general of Texas, both the party and the state have already had one big win - Gohmert will be gone!