Could Texas Become a Blue State?

“Disturbing inroads”: A coalition of seventy Latino officials sent a letter yesterday to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear and the Democratic Governors Association, warning that they would not back a Beshear presidential bid if the DGA does not fund Gina Hinojosa’s bid for Texas governor, highlighting the state’s sizable Latino electorate and the Republicans’ troubling gains among Latinos.

According to The New York Times, the DGA has not allocated funds for Texas advertising, opting instead to devote resources to races in Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin, which they presumably consider to be more competitive battlegrounds.

It is notable that Texas is perceived as a potential battleground state where a Democrat could win the governorship. The last time a Democrat held the office was in the 1990s with Ann Richards. At that time, Texas was not as staunchly red as today. Richards’ opponent then made a series of foolish blunders — including a controversial remark about weather and violence — while Richards projected a savvy, affable vibe that appealed to suburban women in particular.

I wonder whether Hinojosa possesses a similar charm. In any case, it’s striking that national Democratic groups view Texas as a state with meaningful blue prospects.

More on that Flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv: The co-pilot reportedly stabbed the aircraft’s captain, Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, who opened the cockpit door. A group of passengers, hearing the cries and commotion, rushed the cockpit, overpowered the rogue co-pilot, and guided the plane to a safe landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. “I grabbed the attacker and put him in a chokehold and pulled him outside,” passenger Yaniv Hayun told The Wall Street Journal.

“Two additional pilots who were aboard to handle the subsequent flight then assumed command of the jet,” adds the Journal. “Flight data indicate they battled for five minutes to stabilize the aircraft as it lurched up and down amid the chaos on board, following a rapid descent of about 15,000 feet in under a minute.”

Indian authorities at the Riyadh embassy lauded Machchhar’s bravery for opening the cockpit to allow others to intervene. The captain is expected to survive. No details have been released about the attacker or their motives.

Interestingly, most post-9/11 aviation security measures have concentrated on shielding the cockpit from external threats. The real question remains: what if the danger originates from within the cockpit itself? It is fortunate that courageous passengers managed to overpower the assailant.

Scenes from New York: “[Nikole] Hannah-Jones notes on ‘This American Life’ that she first learned of Najya’s math struggles when Najya scored below grade level on a standardized test in fourth grade,” writes Jay Caspian Kang for The New Yorker. “In the Times essay, she describes initially assuming Najya simply struggled with standardized tests, but later the piece reveals that these tests were serving a purpose: to sound a warning that something is off. Parents criticize standardized testing, and while there is a case to be made against ‘teaching to the test,’ it remains crucial to treat these indicators seriously, especially when traditional grades no longer reflect actual understanding. Tests expose gaps between subjective grades and genuine comprehension—and this, in turn, informs the public and administrators about which schools are truly teaching their students. The broad dismissal of standardized testing stands as one of the silliest and most damaging trends in educational discourse over the past quarter-century.”

QUICK HITS

• “Convicted murderer Christa Pike continued to breathe for nearly an hour after she was given two rounds of lethal injection drugs on Wednesday night, according to filings by her legal team, prompting the state to pause the execution and seek emergency medical care,” reports The Washington Post. Media members in the Nashville death chamber described a terrifying scene as Pike continued to speak, breathe, and snore well after the procedure had begun.
• “President Donald Trump said Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh should have voted against last month’s rate increase, but he did not fault the central bank for its decision,” reports Bloomberg.
• All you need to know about the Cornell rape case (alleged) by Reason‘s Robby Soave.
• I’m intrigued by the notion of “attention infidelity.”