This was a wonderful example of Du exceptionalism. I am reading a thread that Hays county in Texas

[LizBeth]

has done extraordinarily well with Democratic vote. I did a google search where Hays county is, because San Marco is south of Austin and sure enough, San Marco falls in that county. That is where my son is going to university and he is part of college Democratic party.

Going thru the thread I see my son in a picture. Now, he is behind the dude in the front of the photo, BUT... with covid, I did not get a visit from him this summer. And I will probably not get the visit with Christmas, even though we miss each other so, he does not want to kill me. But, this has made my Friday evening here in the NW seeing my son on DU. How fun is that. Thank you DU, you made my evening.

Dave Wasserman
@Redistrict
Interesting: Hays County, TX just south of Austin is poised to be the first in the U.S. to surpass its 2016 total votes cast. So far, 65,819 voters have cast ballots, vs. 72,164 in all of '16.

It's also the likeliest county in TX to flip from Trump '16 to Biden '20.
3:51 PM · Oct 23, 2020

]

[SharonClark]

1. I love that your son is in the picture and active

in college Dems. You must be proud of him

[LizBeth]

3. I am very proud, but more in tears seeing his face not being able to connect with him for so long

because of covid and Trumps poor job taking care of this crisis. We miss our loved ones.

[Karadeniz]

2. We've had kids at San Marcos, too! So happy to see them involved!

[LizBeth]

4. +1

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. My alma mater

Beautiful campus. Nice sized, small city. If you like to swim or snorkel, the spring fed San Marcos River is 72°F year round.

[Sucha NastyWoman]

20. Mine too!

Class of, ahem, ‘77. What a great time that was. I’ve been back recently and I looks totally different now.

[TexasBushwhacker]

25. Right behind you. Class of 81

Had a part time job at Colloquium Books my last couple of years. Got to see Stevie Ray Vaughan at Chatham Street Warehouse on Ladies Nights - LOL.

[LizBeth]

28. So much fun yawl, Mine is into Kayak.

[TexasProgresive]

26. My Mom swore it was 50 degrees year round.

Ha ha maybe it's global warming.

[LeftInTX]

45. 72 degrees is cold

[hurl]

5. That's where Beto will become a Politics professor!

Great catch for TSU.

[LizBeth]

6. YES! He was so working for Beto back then, and yes, political science is his minor. Wouldn't it be

great to take a Beto class? He is working for Wendy's campaign right now.

[Budi]

8. Kudos to your son!!! I hope he'll be sitting in Professor Beto O'Rourke's classroom

How exciting for him. And you!
Do they have parent/teacher conferences?!! 😁🙂👍💙

[LizBeth]

10. +1. Wouldn't that be fun cause Beto would really like me, lol lol. I say fuck too. Covid keeps us

isolated.

[Budi]

13. Haaa. Bring along an exrta Starbucks or a beer

He'd love the conversation.

San Marcos college is going to be turning students away. Sorry folks, Beto's class is booked!..

Wow. What a thrill. 🙂

[LizBeth]

16. Or a Whataburger and shake. Yum. Lol

]

[Budi]

27. Omg! Made me laugh at that video 😄

He's going to be such a great teacher of Tx politics.

Beto will change the direction of Texas' future politicians.
Lucky students 👍

[LizBeth]

29. +1. I couldn't agree more. I love Beto, and Wendy.

[Budi]

30. Yes! Wendy too. She's doing really well too.

I love her to pieces as well.
We will be Blue in 11 days.

Then we take on Abbott next!

[MustLoveBeagles]

48. +1

For skateboarding Beto.

[LizBeth]

49. For real

[summer_in_TX]

39. We Texas State University alumni can go with Texas State.

But we are averse to TSU.

Both our boys went there (last one graduated in 2010), then I went back for a master's degree in Mass Comm there.

GO Dem Bobcats!!

[LizBeth]

40. Yea. how fun. My son really likes this university also....

[TwilightZone]

7. Trump won Hays by 600 votes in 2016.

The blue shift there is going to be remarkable. I wouldn't be surprised if it goes 60/40 Biden.

Pretty cool that your son is involved.

[LizBeth]

9. And now I am just so angry how Trumps horrible handling of covid keeps my kids from me. Thank you.

[summer_in_TX]

50. I'd forgotten the margin was so narrow for Trump in 2016 in Hays Co.

We live in a small town in Hays County northwest of San Marcos. San Marcos and all along the I-35 corridor trends bluer than the northern and western part of the county. But in 2018, we managed to elect a Democratic county judge and county clerk after a few cycles of being virtually shut out except in San Marcos.

I'm thrilled to hear about the turnout. I'm an LWV of Hays County board member and we have worked our tails off, in new ways, since so many of us are older and we had to be careful of COVID. We've done a lot of collaboration with voting rights groups that work with college students.

We held our six candidates forums virtually, did mobile voter registration events from the trunks of cars, did a lot more on social media and spent money on weekly ads in three community newspapers in the county.

[LizBeth]

51. Good for you and how exciting. Thank you.

[TwilightZone]

60. Very nice.

What a lot of people don't realize is that there are a lot of blue pockets in the area and that Austin isn't the oasis of blue that many assume it to be. We live just NE of Austin proper and our area went about 55/45 for Hillary in 2016. Turnout has been crazy, and nearly all of the local races will likely be taken by Dems.

Now, if we could just get rid of McCaul here in the 10th! We're trying, but as with Chip Roy in 21, it's a bit of a challenge.

[LizBeth]

61. Does it look like Wendy is going to take it? I would really like to get her in.

That is how we are in Oregon. People think it is so blue, but we have our red too.

[TwilightZone]

66. There haven't been any recent polls.

The latest had it tied, but that was six weeks ago. The district is heavily gerrymandered, but demographics have changed dramatically since that was done in 2010. It's one of the fastest growing counties in the US.

[LizBeth]

67. Interesting. I knew it had been growing but not that much. Very cool. Well, go Wendy

I really want her to win.

[brer cat]

11. It is awesome that you found your son's picture here on DU.

I know you must be proud of your son! It is so bad to miss our children and grandchildren and not be able to see them.

[LizBeth]

14. Just this. I miss them so.

[FakeNoose]

12. Good job Mom! You raised him well

[LizBeth]

15. Thank you, an awesome young man. I am a bit sad, missing him, sorry.

[Nevilledog]

18. That's really cool.

[LizBeth]

21. It has me in tears this evening, and yes, it is very cool.

[Nevilledog]

22. Make sure you save it!

[LizBeth]

24. I have. And I have had conversation with son, which takes me to tears. And I FB it to let my Trumper

know what they are doing to us all. It has really been heavy, but it is good.

[Nevilledog]

42. Be sure and tell him he's now a DU rockstar!

[LizBeth]

44. I did tell him.. lol. It was so much fun. He did not know the picture was taken, so was

especially fun.

[Upthevibe]

19. LizBeth

How awesome you have such a fine and socially conscious son! I know you're proud. I'm so sorry you haven't been able to see each other. We have to believe that with Joe Biden as President things will get better.....

[LizBeth]

23. I believe. We believe.

[SunSeeker]

31. Man, if that was my son getting out the vote in college, I would be tearing up with pride.

My son is totally apolitical. All he cares about is sports. Love him more than life itself, but damn I wish I could talk about deeper subjects with him.

[LizBeth]

34. My other is in law school, very much the Democratic voice writing his papers on issues. It does feel

good and if neither of them did that, good people that they are regardless, I would love them all over the place. But it is fun that they have the same views and speak loud even though they grew up in a predominantly red area with a lot of family and friends, red. They listened all those years.

[Yavin4]

32. Your story is known as a...

Good omen!!!

[LizBeth]

35. Ahhhh, that works for me. I would rather have him here for Christmas, but... It is what it is. ;)

[summer_in_TX]

41. What's he doing over Winter Break?

I know the students on campus generally will be going home at Thanksgiving and taking finals online in early December. Does he live off campus? Working somewhere?

Hope they have ways of quarantining so their families are safe.

[LizBeth]

43. He has a place off campus. Neither of the boys are visiting because they fear giving covid to me,

being old and all. My oldest is ready to quarantine and then driving out for a visit. Both are pretty responsible because neither want to be responsible getting any old person sick. Both are on line schooling and wearing masks and isolating for the most part. We are watching what happens over the next month to see if I can get a Christmas visit but how it is going, I do not see it. I hear from them often and regularly thru text and calls but not the same. So many many families are living the same.

[summer_in_TX]

46. Perhaps if you have access to a outdoor location

A small gathering distanced outside on a day with pleasant weather would work for an in person visit.

The amount of transmission that happens outside is extremely low.

With masks until folks get settled, then it's safe sitting outside if you're perhaps 10 feet apart (as long as no one is coughing).

[LizBeth]

47. One is in Minneapolis, one in Texas and I am in Oregon, so not so easy. But I hear you.... That

would be nice. I am so ready to see them I am ready to fly them both in this Christmas break and keeping them here for a month, regardless.

[summer_in_TX]

54. I hope that happens

Living in Texas, with both set of kids and grandkids within four hour drives, we've taken the risk to visit. Some outdoors but even indoors. We know the risk of course. Unfortunately both kids ended up conservative (their wives are too). So we just skirt around the subject of politics, unwilling to let politics ruin our relationship with them.

[LizBeth]

55. It would be so much easier if we were a drive away. That is very cool. I am considering moving to

Minneapolis but I simply love Oregon the beauty feeds me so. Mostly we are good because we talk so often. The youngest I had three conversations with today, so we connect often. My oldest connects with me even more so. It is just times, like seeing a picture of them when not expecting it, that I get that pain.

Thank you.

Most of my other family is conservative. So I hear you how you love and you just do not talk about it.

But, it is very cool you have family close enough.

[summer_in_TX]

56. Yes, we are thankful.

It hurts not to talk freely. But I don't want to cross boundaries with my boys, and I'm not sure I can talk without saying too much, being too emotional. So I choke it back.

[LizBeth]

57. My father that has always been my hero, a man of integrity, that taught me right and wrong.

The man that made me who I am. I want to say to him, it is who he is, that I think as I do. He taught me the wrong of the Republican lack of morality and ethics, and here he is supporting them.

He is old and he is surrounded by echo chamber of Fox news.

Not worth arguing about it. I keep my mouth shut and tell him I will not talk politics with him.

That works for now. But is is so much easier having kids that agree with my position, for sure.

[summer_in_TX]

58. I recommend the documentary,"The Brainwashing of My Dad,"

which shows a daughter with a journalism background investigating why and how her warm, wonderful father turned into an angry right winger.

Hopeful ending.

Check on their website for ways to watch. It's an indy not high quality production, but it's so worth seeing.,

[LizBeth]

59. Oh, thank you. That is so nice of you to suggest that. Absolutely, I will check it out.

[hibbing]

33. Quality content n/t

[LizBeth]

36. Thank you.

[hamsterjill]

37. Awesome all the way around!

Hello from San Antonio!

So happy to see so many Texans on DU. Happy to hear about Hays County.

You should be very proud of your son.

[LizBeth]

38. Thank you hamsterjill, it very much is awesome all the way around, isn't it, lol. !!!

[MustLoveBeagles]

52. You must be so proud

That's a wonderful thing he's doing.

[LizBeth]

53. It is a wonderful thing, and yes, I am proud. It was more a surprise seeing his body, I can't

really see the face, but a mama knows...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

62. Lyndon Johnson went there.

I think Texas State University is a stupid generic name. It used to be Southwest Texas State Teacher's College. Lyndon Johnson went there and stole his first election there, for Student Body President. "Vote early and often" was his line. ROFL

[LizBeth]

64. What an interesting tidbit. I haven't been on campus. But, I hear it is beautiful and a river going

thru campus.

[skip fox]

63. Beautiful children!

My son is a partner in one of two Biden's firms watching the Georgia election. The other firm is handling the everyday voter suppression, intimidation, vote counting, etc. My son's firm is tasked with taking care of extraordinary irregularity (the governor appointing a different sent of electoral college electors).

I'm often proud that all three of my adult children are strong liberals. (But then I wonder "How could they be otherwise?" )

But when we see our kids actively out there doing great work in support the name of democracy and a progressive view . . . WOW!

Congratulations!

[LizBeth]

65. Isn't it fun? It is just fun, yes. That was a huge concern raising kids in a very red area.

We did not know a single liberal. They had none at school. The had to educate black kids and gay kids why they wanted to vote Democratic. It was an experience. I was concerned with peer pressure and just overwhelming Republican thinking in school, I wouldn't have a chance. Not true. Lol. They were always vocal and all the Republican teachers allowed them their voice, as long as it was done respectfully, so I valued that.

My other son is in law school at University of Minnesota.

That is very very cool that your son is participating. I am going to remember your name the closer we get to election, for inside stuff. Georgia is bad. Bad bad with their Gov. Absolutely no illusion of fairness.