Texas Democrats Just Got a Huge Boost Thanks to This Court Decision

A judge threw out a GOP lawsuit that tried to get Democrats thrown off the November ballot.

Eric Gay/AP

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On Monday, a judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Dallas County Republican Party that would have kicked most Democratic candidates in the Texas county off the ballot.

The lawsuit, filed in January, tried to keep 127 Democratic candidates from appearing on the March 6 primary ballot, in a county that tends to vote Democratic. The suit was later amended to apply to the November election, and the number of candidates whittled down to 82.

The suit argued the Democratic party chair, Carol Donovan, did not properly authorize the ballots for most of the party’s 150 primary candidates. Had District Judge Eric Moyé ruled in the GOP’s favor, the suit would have disproportionately affected voters of color, who overwhelmingly cast their ballots for Democrats in the state, Randy Johnston, the attorney representing the Democratic Party in the case, told Mother Jones in January.

The lawsuit named candidates for Texas’ state Senate and House, plus county judge, county commissioner, and justice of the peace. Many of those seats in Dallas County are typically held by Democrats. The suit was stalled for several months after Dallas County Republicans tried to get Moyé to recuse himself. Moyé is a Democrat, and has donated to local and national Democratic candidate campaigns.

The Dallas Morning News reported Monday that Donovan, the Democratic party chair, said the decision “ensures that democracy has been protected.” Donovan, it appears, emerged from the lawsuit relatively unscathed. She overwhelmingly defeated her challenger for the Democratic party chair seat, according to Dallas County Elections results.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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