Dear Kaufman County Democrats - Run Someone Against Keith Bell
Keith Bell's unchallenged reign: time for Democrats to step up.
Kaufman County is the fastest-growing county in Texas and one of the fastest-growing counties in the entire nation. According to the U.S. Census, only 50% of the population is now non-white Hispanic. While that raises many ethical questions about the Confederate statue’s presence in City Hall’s courtyard, it also means that Kaufman County is increasingly blue.
There are roughly 100,000 eligible voters in Kaufman County this year, but in the 2022 election, there were only 82,000 registered voters. That tells us that there are close to 20,000 unregistered voters. In Texas, where so many people ignore state politics, Democratic-leaning voters are most likely not to get involved because they think the Republicans outnumber us. That’s not true.
We’ve been beaten down by one-party rule for so long that most people throw their hands up, but we outnumber the GOP in every conceivable way possible. We just don’t vote.
From now until the 2024 election, the Kaufman County Democratic Party ought to be registering people to vote. They need to ensure they are getting out into every community and increasing the number of registered voters.
Why should we have faith in Kaufman County Democrats?
In 2022, even with the abysmally low turnout, Kaufman County had the biggest Democratic voter increase between 2018 and 2022. To be clear, only 11 counties in the state increased their Democratic turnout from 2018 to 2022. Not only was Kaufman County one of those 11, but they performed the best out of all 11.
That’s a big step in the right direction. If Kaufman County can keep up the momentum and the population continues to surge as it has in the past few years, Kaufman could be blue by 2030. But Kaufman Democrats can’t give up.
Keith Bell ran unopposed in the last two elections. That can’t happen again.
Keith Bell hasn’t faced a Democratic challenger since 2018. A few Libertarian candidates challenged him, but they might have been other Republicans.
Keith Bell is a multi-millionaire only in office to enrich himself further and implement the right’s fascist agenda. Bell has spent the entire time in office working against his constituents. Let’s talk about some of his key votes.
While 20% of Kaufman County is Black, Bell voted to ban so-called CRT in schools. As we all know, the Republican’s interpretation of CRT is anti-Black history. So, Bell voted to deny teaching Black history to Kaufman County children.
As we all saw during the record heat this summer, we are in the midst of a full-blown climate crisis. Despite that, Keith Bell panders to the oil and gas industry, even when it will cost the lives of Texans. He voted to make it a felony to protest pipelines, even though that was unconstitutional. He voted to prohibit cities from banning new gas hookups. And he voted to block cities from acting on climate change.
In fact, Keith Bell is all for BIG GOVERNMENT. That’s why he voted to prohibit cities from mandating water breaks for workers in the last session. In the 87th Legislature, Bell voted to penalize towns if they made any budget cuts to their police department, regardless of the circumstances.
Bell also voted to send your money to Christian Pregnancy Centers, which get millions of Texan’s taxpayer dollars each year.
Those votes are just the tip of the iceberg. On the Mothers Against Greg Abbott Report Card, Keith Bell got straight ‘F’s.
Kaufman County deserves better.
If you live in Kaufman County and you’re interested in running or even just getting involved, contact:
If you already belong to the Kaufman County Democratic Party, it’s time to recruit candidates. The filing deadline is December 11, which is right around the corner.
Everyone plays a part in the eventual and inevitable of flipping Texas blue, and for Kaufman County, that means giving voters a reason to get to the polls.