We recommend John Whitmire in the Democratic primary for Texas Senate District 15
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Incumbents get a few extra points in this process because we figure that since taxpayers have effectively funded their on-the-job training there’s no need to toss them out unless they give voters a good reason.
No Texas senator has had more on-the-job training than John Whitmire, a moderate Democrat who has spent nearly a half-century representing Houston under the pink dome, starting in the House.
His primary challenger for Senate District 15, Molly Cook, 30, does bring welcome energy, a fresh perspective as an emergency room nurse and a grassroots organizer, and a concern worth pondering: she argues Whitmire won’t be as effective next legislative session because he’ll have one eye on his recently announced campaign for Houston mayor.
“There’s a lot of evidence that Senator Whitmire has moved on, is ready for his next job,” Cook told us.
She’s right that the 72-year-old Whitmire’s influence has diminished over the years, from a scrappy senator who often made Texas Monthly’s list of best legislators to merely a shrewd survivor often hamstrung by Republicans’ iron grip on the Senate.
The fact that right-wing Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has allowed Whitmire to retain his long-held chairmanship of the Senate’s criminal justice committee and a seat on the powerful finance committee either shows Whitmire is still effective in a divided chamber or he’s made a deal with the devil not to push too hard on Democratic priorities. It’s probably both.
Some bills, including those to decriminalize marijuana possession, haven’t progressed under his watch.
Still, Whitmire is a commanding orator on liberal causes such as voting rights, a cantankerous watchdog in committee hearings and a reliable ally of teachers, labor, police and firefighters. His seniority puts him in the room where it happens, to borrow a phrase, and that room isn’t open to freshmen.
“Yeah, it’s frustrating,” Whitmire told us of his minority status in the Senate. “I don’t like the demagoguery. It makes me want to throw up some days but that’s just where we are as a nation right now. … I’m results-oriented. That’s all I care about. Get the job done.”
As for his run for mayor, Whitmire says he won’t start campaigning in earnest for mayor until July of 2023, a month after the regular session ends in June.
Whitmire’s track record as a hard-working senator in tune with his constituents’ needs gives us no reason to believe he’d start slacking off now. His accomplishments in the past decade include closing prisons and reducing the state’s inmate population through “smart-on-crime” reforms, banning the biased “pick-a-pal” grand jury system and shepherding the Sandra Bland Act, which diverts mentally ill inmates toward treatment and requires independent investigations into jail deaths.
Whitmire’s seniority and relationships remain valuable, especially as fellow Houstonian, Republican Sen. Joan Huffman, ascends to the role of finance chair.
Houston will need his influence when state lawmakers divvy up federal infrastructure and COVID money and his even-keeled approach on criminal justice as lawmakers struggle to reduce violent crime without rolling back hard-won reforms.
Party activists might join Cook in chiding Whitmire for his refusal to flee to Washington D.C. during last year’s quorum-busting boycott over voting rights, and some are still chafing 18 years after “Quitmire,” as he was dubbed, became the first Democrat to return from a month-long exile in Albuquerque over the GOP’s off-year congressional redistricting.
In each case, Whitmire pragmatically chose not to prolong a losing battle, and last year, he argues that he did more good staying in Austin, where he stood against a bill targeting transgender student athletes and other harmful legislation.
Cook’s passion for causes such as mitigating the harm of the I-45 expansion and standing up for abortion rights in part by bravely sharing her own experience is laudable and we hope to see more of her.
For now, Democrats should keep Whitmire in the room where it happens and demand that he use the opportunity to actually make something happen.
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