{"id":5124,"date":"2020-11-04T11:05:46","date_gmt":"2020-11-04T11:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/2020\/11\/04\/west-texas-reflects-dizzying-polarisation-seen-across-us\/"},"modified":"2020-11-04T11:05:46","modified_gmt":"2020-11-04T11:05:46","slug":"west-texas-reflects-dizzying-polarisation-seen-across-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/satellite.mmu.ac.uk\/northernquota-old\/west-texas-reflects-dizzying-polarisation-seen-across-us\/","title":{"rendered":"West Texas reflects the dizzying polarisation seen across the US"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Lubbock,
Lubbock skyline<\/a>. By user:Redraiderengineer – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0,<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI got involved in politics and campaigns two years ago when Beto \u202fO\u2019Rourke \u202fran,\u201d said Gracie Gomez, the Democratic party chair in Lubbock county, Texas. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe ignited this movement that helped bring Texas closer,\u201d Gomez said of O\u2019Rourke, citing the hope he inspired in many Democrats throughout Texas in 2018. <\/p>\n

Gomez said that, like O\u2019Rourke\u2019s campaign, this year\u2019s race has generated lots of interest and galvanised Democrats in the traditionally conservative county to step up and be heard. <\/p>\n

In acknowledging the loss, Gomez said: \u201cI wish the change had come about with this election, we \u202fwill \u202frest a couple of days and start working on the \u202fmid-terms.\u201d <\/p>\n

Other issues that may have proved to be snags to the Democrats’ race in Lubbock were touched on, specifically abortion. In a county that has just certified a partition to make it a “sanctuary for the unborn” which would ban abortions within the city of Lubbock and level a fine of $2000 to anyone who performs or aids an abortion, the issue is of intense significance. <\/p>\n

\u201cCommon sense and history tell you that getting rid of safe abortion does not get rid of it but drives women to seek abortion and risk their lives,\u201d said Gomez, who supports women\u2019s rights to abortion and the arrival of planned parenthood in the county. <\/p>\n

Gomez is an exponent of more comprehensive sex education in the county\u2019s schools as a means to enhance younger people\u2019s understanding of these issues. <\/p>\n

Lubbock is a small university town, with nothing in the centre further than five or ten minutes away from one another. So, although Gracie Gomez will have been speaking only a few miles away from the Lubbock Republican Party\u2019s election celebrations at the Prima Vista Event Centre, she was lightyears away from them politically.  <\/p>\n

Jim Baxa in particular, who, with his face lit with Republican-red lights, speaking over President Trump’s national address on a nearby TV, opened his remarks with an unsubstantiated allegation of electoral fraud. <\/p>\n

\u201cTrump\u2019s looking good in all the ballots yet to be announced, so it\u2019s looking positive \u2013 unless there\u2019s cheating going on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Embed from Getty Images<\/a>