Burnt Orange Report

Texas Tuesday: Dot Nelson-Turnier

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

With the holidays now behind us, it's time to get back in the swing of things. And since many of the Texas Tuesdays writers have been behind the concept of running every race, I thought we'd focus on one candidate who best symbolizes the ethic of challenging incumbents despite the odds, despite the conventional wisdom ... and despite personal handicaps.

Dot Nelson-Turnier is challenging incumbent Debbie Riddle in one of Harris County's reddest State Rep. districts - a district that has not had an alternative for Democrat on the ballot as far back as the online records go (1992). That alone would make Dot's challenge impressive. But Dot is also wheelchair-bound, which makes a slight alteration of "Run.Everywhere" to "Roll.Everywhere." This hasn't limited Dot's ability to take her word to Democratic groups in search of volunteers and donors.

Houston's own Perry Dorrell managed to get some Q&A out of Dot in an excellent post over at TexasTuesdays.com:

I am running because I feel no Republican should run unopposed. We have to give people a choice. My focus is on what I call the Killer E’s , Economics, Education, Equity, Equality and Environment and I do not think the incumbent Republicans have been making much progress on these issues.

Of course, Dot's opponent is a Republican who believes that a free, public education is a communist idea. Seriously. Check Perry's post for the details.

For now, we ask that you support Dot's candidacy by mailing a check:

Dot Nelson-Turnier
40 FM 1960 W # 225
HOUSTON, TX 77090-3530

... or visit her campaign site to donate via Paypal.

Feel free to forward this message to any and all good Democrats in your address book. And if you run a blog, feel free to give Dot some publicity to help spread the word. If candidates like Dot are willing to stem the latest version of a Red Tide here in Texas, then there ought to be numerous other candidates motivated to run in even more districts next time around. But for now, let's help Dot get uphill in this race to start showing some real progress among Democratic voters!

And, of course, the fine folks at ActBlue.com could still use a donation or two to help get online donations to every state legislative race available. Donations to this go a long way towards helping candidates like Dot as well as any potential candidates who might be more willing to run if the availability of tools such as ActBlue were available to them.