Check out the website: https://lenspoliticalnotes.com Look at the recent Political Notes and Len’s Letters on the website. Political Note #355 Angie Craig MN 02, Political Note #356 Susie Lee NV 03, Political Note #357 Haley Stevens MI 11, Political Note #362 Vicente Gonzalez, Political Note #363 Tom Malinowski NJ 07, Political Note #375 Steven Horsford NV 04, Political Note #364 Jana Lynne Sanchez TX 06 Special Election, Multi-party Primary on May 1, 2021.
Political Note #377 Lizzie Fletcher TX 07
2022 General Election
As smart as a person as you’ll find in Congress. Phi Beta Kappa at Kenyon College. Editor in Chief of the Law Review at William & Mary. In between college and law school she spent a few years exploring possibilities. During those years, her father’s advice remained present for her: “Law is history; law is public policy; and if those are the things that interest and inspire you, be a lawyer.”
What did Lizzie Fletcher https://www.lizziefletcher.com discover after law school? Her home town of Houston and work as a lawyer – her father’s profession, also her grandfather’s and great grandfather’s profession. She also found a husband, N. Scott Fletcher, who is a distinguished Houston attorney.
At home in corporate Houston, she initially worked for Vinson & Elkins, then went on to work for the smaller firm AZA or Ahmad, Zavitzanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing. Lizzie Fletcher was AZA’s first female partner. When she made partner, the firm wrote about her: “A fourth-generation Texas trial lawyer and native Houstonian, Ms. Fletcher has a track record of courtroom wins…. . Her opening statement [in a case representing a Houston businesswoman in 2014], the judge later reflected, was so masterful the court reporter was about to cry during the opening…By humanizing otherwise dry legal theories, Fletcher made her case in [the] opening.”
The Houston Chronicle endorsed her for reelection in 2020. The newspaper identified two reasons for the endorsement. In response to the hurricane that devastated Houston, Lizzie Fletcher initiated a bill to speed disaster relief. She gathered Republican and Democratic support and eked out a 7 vote win. The newspaper also noted her committee memberships. Lizzie Fletcher is a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, including its subcommittee on Health, Communication and Technology, and Consumer Protection and Committee. She is also on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, chairing the Energy Subcommittee. The newspaper endorsement noted that, through these committees, she is focused on issues crucial to Houston – NASA, the oil and gas industry, and the Houston Ship Canal.
Lizzie Fletcher told the Chronicle she was proud of her ability to achieve an endorsement from the US Chamber of Commerce while also getting a 100% rating for her voting record from the AFL-CIO. She didn’t add that the union endorsement was an extraordinary achievement, considering the extent to which her law firm was known for representing corporate clients in disputes with unions. Nor did she mention her endorsement by the progressive organization Move On or her focus on women’s issues which had been important to her since high school. The summer of 1992, she was a rising high school senior and the Republican National Convention was in town. She joined with pro-choice groups and locked arms to form a chain to prevent anti-abortion demonstrators from overrunning a Planned Parenthood clinic not far from the Astrodome.
Lizzie Fletcher has been a member of the financially conservative, socially progressive New Democratic Coalition – the largest of the three ideological Democratic groups. She describes this group as pro-business and pro-trade and notes that she chairs its Trade Task Force and serves on its Health Task Force. Consider her other caucuses in terms of the
- Business interests of her District and the rest of Texas: The Natural Gas Caucus of which she is co-chair, the Oil and Gas Caucus, and the National Corrosion Caucus
- Communal interests of her District and the rest of Texas: The Anti-Semitism Caucus, the Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Black Maternal Health Caucus, the Equality Caucus.
- Policy relevant for her constituents: The Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, the Sportsmen Caucus, the Small Brewers Caucus, the Pro-Choice Caucus, and the Diabetes Caucus.
For the 2022 election, Lizzie Fletcher will be a Republican target. Republicans are conscious that Democrats targeted 10 Republican Members of Congress in 2020 and didn’t defeat one of them. They are conscious that Joe Biden didn’t do as well as some Democrats had expected him to do in Texas. And they are conscious that Lizzie Fletcher won by 5 points in 2018 against an incumbent, by 3.4 points in 2020 when she was the incumbent, and the Texas Republican legislature could shift the district just enough to make a Democratic victory in 2022 tougher.
Lizzie Fletcher will need resources to win. In 2018, she outraised the incumbent $6.2 million to $3.5 million. That fund raising margin was part of her victory even though Republican PACs raise more money than Democrats do. In 2020, Lizzie Fletcher was outraised by her opponent, Wesley Hunt, an African American military veteran, $7.5 million to $6.3 million. That fund raising margin was a factor in how well Hunt did. Lizzie Fletcher https://www.lizziefletcher.com will need to do better in 2022. Help her do that. Make a donation.
Members of Congress who won with less than 51% of the vote
Iowa 03 Cynthia Axne https://cindyaxneforcongress.com Received 48.9% of the vote in 2020
Illinois 14 Lauren Underwood https://underwoodforcongress.com Received 50.67% of the vote in 2020
Michigan 08 Elissa Slotkin https://elissaforcongress.com Received 50.88% of the vote in 2020
Michigan 11 Haley Stevens https://haleystevensforcongress.com Received 50.2% of the vote in 2020
Minnesota 02 Angie Craig https://angiecraig.com Received 48.21% of the vote in 2020
Nevada 03 Susie Lee https://www.susieleeforcongress.com Received 48.75% of the vote in 2020
Nevada 04 Steve Horsford https://www.stevenhorsford.com Received 50.67% of the vote in 2020
New Jersey 07 Tom Malinowski https://malinowskifornj.com Received 50.61% of the vote in 2020
Texas 07 Lizzie Fletcher https://www.lizziefletcher.com Received 50.79% of the vote in 2020
Texas 15 Vicente Gonzalez http://www.vicentegonzalez.com Received 50.5% of the vote in 2020
Organizations to support as well
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) https://dccc.org
The Democratic National Committee (DNC). https://democrats.org The official organization of the Democratic Party.
Fair Fight https://fairfight.com Promotes fair elections around the country
A Special Election Coming Up
The TX 06 multi-party primary is on May 1. Jana Lynne Sanchez could use every bit of help you can provide. Getting a Democrat into the run off creates the possibility of adding to the slim Democratic majority in the current Congress and creates momentum for retaining or expanding a Democratic majority in the next Congress. Add to Jana Lynne Sanchez’ resources https://www.janasanchez.com
A Special Interest of Mine
New York City has its own small-town politics. Many of the readers of Lenspoliticalnotes are New Yorkers. Some may live in or know people in Part A of Assembly District 76 (roughly east of 3rd Avenue and south of 79th Street to and including Roosevelt Island).
If you live in Part A of State Assembly District 76 in New York, please support and vote for Rebecca Weintraub in the June 22 Democratic Primary. If you know people who live in Part A of Assembly District 76, please encourage them to vote for her.
Our club and the other Democratic Club in District 76 are supporting Rebecca Weintraub’s candidacy to be one of four District Leaders of the 76th Assembly District — the female leader of Part A of Assembly District 76. District Leaders are a kind of liaison between political parties and the community.
You can learn more about Rebecca Weintraub at her Website www.VoteRebecca.nyc or at Twitter @RSWinNYC or at Instagram /RSW_in_NYC or at Facebook /VoteRebeccaWeintraub. In her non-political life, she is Vice President of a public relations firm, mother of Benjamin, and wife of Evan. In her political life, she has been an active member of our club, a leader in an innovative effort collecting video responses from NYC candidates for public office used to assess who to endorse and who to vote for.
News
Jill Underly was elected on Tuesday, April 6 Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction. You may recall Political Note #361 on February 26 supporting her candidacy. In this non-partisan race, Jill Underly was supported by Democrats. Her opponent, Education Consultant Deborah Kerr, was supported by Republicans. Jill Underly’s victory was by a wide margin – 58-42. Let’s hope that this serves as a predictor for Wisconsin’s US Senate race, Governor’s race, contests for other Wisconsin constitutional offices, and for the state legislature.