For a longtime now, I have been saying on this blog that the Democratic Party doesn't have a single statewide elected office holder in the state of Texas (and hasn't for over 20 years). I can no longer say that. Texas now has one statewide Democratic office holder -- Judge Lawrence Meyers (pictured on the left), who currently holds place 2 on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.Meyers was elected in 2010 as a Republican for a six-year term on the court (getting 82.3% of the statewide vote). On Monday, Meyers announced he will be running for the Texas Supreme Court in 2014. But he will not be running as a Republican. He is filing to run for the Democratic nomination to that court -- and has announced that he is now a Democrat.
Meyers does not have to give up his current position to run for the Supreme Court position. That means Texas will continue to have a statewide Democratic office holder, whether Meyers wins the Supreme Court position or not (since his term on the Court of Criminal Appeals runs through 2016).
Meyers joins one of the best state Democratic tickets in many years, led by gubernatorial candidate State Senator Wendy Davis. Now that the GOP is no longer pitching a statewide shutout, maybe we can build on this good news -- and give Judge Meyers some statewide elected Democratic cohorts in Austin.
