TX-10: Amid COVID-19, Health Care Is A Key Issue In Texas' 10th Congressional District

[RandySF]

wo Democrats are fighting for the chance to take Texas congressman Michael McCaul’s seat in November. And the most important issue in the race is the COVID-19 pandemic.

Texas’ 10th Congressional District, which stretches from Houston to Austin, was solidly Republican for more than a decade. But in 2018, incumbent Rep. McCaul had the closest race of his career.

In 2018, Mike Siegel lost to McCaul by fewer than five percentage points. In the progressive Democrat’s second run for the seat, he’s focusing on Medicare for All.

“I think it’s fair to analogize this COVID-19 pandemic to a war, and definitely in terms of lives lost but also impact on the economy,” Siegel said, arguing that government intervention is critical at this moment. “And to me the example of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in terms of building this New Deal, the Works Progress Administration, using the power of the federal purse to basically put people to work, create new jobs and new industries and bring the country out of an economic crisis.”

Siegel’s Democratic primary runoff opponent, Dr. Pritesh Gandhi, is generally viewed as the moderate in the race. Gandhi favors universal health care as well — if a more incremental approach, informed largely by his work in an Austin-based community health center.

“Unequivocally, health is a human right. And that’s how I view that. I’ve viewed it from that perspective and that lens my entire life. It is an inherent right available to all children and all adults in every part of our world,” Gandhi said.




https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2020/07/01/377041/covid-19-reshapes-race-in-texas-10th-congressional-district/

[Gothmog]

1. I like Dr. Gandhi

Link to tweet

[ananda]

2. I voted for him.

..

[Gothmog]

3. Dr. Gandhi is very electable

I really like Dr. Gandhi in this race

Link to tweet

Toward the beginning of the runoff, Gandhi picked up endorsements from two national groups: Planned Parenthood and Giffords, the anti-gun violence organization. But Siegel has been on more of a streak in the runoff, landing further in-district endorsements as well as the backing of two members of the Texas congressional delegation, Reps. Veronica Escobar of El Paso and Sylvia Garcia of Houston. Siegel also has won runoff endorsements from three former 2020 presidential candidates: Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Marianne Williamson.

More recently, Gandhi countered with his own endorsement from a former White House hopeful: U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California, who called Gandhi a "progressive fighter who can win."

Gandhi has been the top fundraiser, raising $1.2 million to over $864,000 for Siegel as of June 24. However, the money race tightened considerably in the second quarter of 2020, with Gandhi's campaign saying he surpassed $256,000 and Siegel's saying he collected over $250,000.

Gandhi has also benefited from six figures of outside spending by 314 Action Fund, which works to elect more people to office with backgrounds in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The group attacked Hutcheson in the primary and has returned to the fray in the runoff to target Siegel as unelectable, airing a TV ad that says voters "can't risk more of Mike McCaul and the Trump agenda."