The Oath Keeper Candidate

Photo courtesty of Medina for Governor

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Debra Medina almost certainly won’t be the next governor of Texas. According to recent polls from Public Policy and Rasmussen, the Tea Party insurgent‘s momentum has crashed full-speed into the proverbial wallor, as the case may have it, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s wire fence. But I think the fixation, by TPM and others, on Medina’s drop in the polls in the wake of her Vesuvian performance on Glenn Beck really misses the point. Medina was bound to lose at least a handful of swing votes; what’s remarkable is just how much of her base (16 to 20 percent of likely voters, depending on the poll) is sticking with her.

The fervor of Medina’s supporters doesn’t seem so out of place, though, when you consider this: Perhaps more than any other candidate in a major race in 2010, Medina has gotten cozy with Oath Keepers, the group of heavily-armed constitutionalists profiled in Justine Sharrock’s must-read March/April cover story. It’s a natural fit: a candidate who has vowed to nullify tyrannical laws and fight federal agencies like the EPA befriending a group whose members pledge to disobey any orders they personally deem unconstitutional.

Last Saturday, Medina campaigned in San Antonio alongside Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and former sheriff Richard Mack, one of the group’s most high-profile activists. It wasn’t a one-time thing, either: Back in December, when Medina was still polling in the low single digits, she and Mack hooked up for five campaign stops in two days as part of her “Take Back Texas” tour. (Here‘s a nice snapshot.)

Medina and Mack even teamed up to produce a documentary about the state sovereignty movement, which you can buy for $5 at Medina’s campaign website. The film’s tagline captures the mutual mood of her campaign and the Oath Keepers: “Will you join the army preparing to stand against federal tyranny?” Following her disastrous Beck interview earlier this month—during which the right’s wingnut media pitbull (go figure) more or less outed Medina as a 9/11 Truther— Mack told Chris Matthews that Beck “owes Debra Medina an apology.” At this point, Medina and Mack are practically running mates. Too bad he hails from Arizona.

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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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