Blue Texas
Texas Democrat Aims To Unseat One Of Trump’s Most Loyal Congressional Supporters
Will Fisher is running for Congress in Texas’ 26th Congressional District
This is the fifth installment of the Blue Texas Project, a series of interviews with Texas Democrats running for Congress in 2018.
Like most Texas Democrats, Will Fisher woke up on Wednesday, November 9 bewildered by the results of the previous night’s presidential election and scared of the implications of President Donald Trump.
“I was one of those shouting from the rooftops that this guy is dangerous,” Fisher said. “A real danger to our democracy and our democratic institutions.”
Instead of becoming discouraged by the election results, Fisher started organizing and became more involved with the Flower Mound Democrats. Eventually, in May, he decided to seek a spot in the U.S. House of Representatives in Texas’ 26th Congressional District in the 2018 midterm elections.
TX-26 is a Republican stronghold on the northern tip of the Dallas Fort Worth metroplex. The district includes Denton, Lewisville, and Flower Mound, and was referred to as “perhaps the most conservative area in the state,” in The Dallas Morning News earlier this year.
U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, a former OB/GYN, currently represents the district. Dr. Burgess has emerged as one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress. According to FiveThirtyEight, Burgess votes with Trump 97.6% of the time.
Burgess is perhaps best known nationally for this 2015 segment from “The Daily Show.”
Fisher says that Burgess has never been challenged by a professionally staffed campaign and that he presents the toughest challenge Burgess has faced since he was first elected to Congress in 2002.
Before Fisher has a chance to defeat Burgess next November he will first need to make it through a crowded Democratic primary.
Read my Tuesday, August 22 interview with Will Fisher or our live stream with him, below. It is lightly edited for clarity.
MR: First of all, why did you decide to run this year? Why was 2018 the right time to run for you?
Fisher: To be honest, being a politician was not something I planned on. I’m an attorney and I enjoy my job. I’m an in-house lawyer for a steel company here in Irving and I live in Flower Mound.
2016 happened. I just felt very strongly going into the election. Back in 2015 when Donald Trump was surging I was one of those shouting from the rooftops that this guy is dangerous. A real danger to our democracy and our democratic institutions. Seeing him elected and seeing the way it was done was very worrisome to me and I woke up the next day on November 9 and really did some soul searching of what I need to do as a concerned citizen to try and get our country going back in the right direction.
I started organizing within the Democratic Party more rigorously. I worked with the local Flower Mound Democrats and helped grow that group from 60 or 70 members in an online Facebook group and today that group is now over 600. I realized that for those moderates or Democrats who feel like maybe they are a bit secluded, that their worldview is not held by their neighbors, I think that we have shown that in many cases that's a myth.
People say Texas is a very, very red state and it is in a lot of ways, but there are a lot of progressive and more moderate thinkers here. People who view the world in a more egalitarian way, who really care about their community, and want to make sure that they are doing everything they can to make sure the sick, injured, and needy in their communities are cared for. We have shown that with the amount of energy and excitement here in little old Flower Mound, which is traditionally known as a red part of the county.
As January and February came along and we were having success with organizing, I really started to ask myself- what’s next? What more can be done? One person’s vote has very little effect on the national picture, but what one person can do is organize in their own district. If you can just focus in your own district and try to flip your district and everybody takes that approach then you can see a wave election in 2018.
So I began organizing and looking and thinking do I find someone to get behind, or do I consider running myself? The more I talked with my wife, to my friends, to my family, and thought about my own dreams and desires for what our country can look like. The more I realized that running myself was the right thing. Back in May, I declared and started putting together a team. We have had an amazing professional team come together of activists and experienced campaign organizers. Folks who really want to see this district flipped. It’s been an amazing experience so far.
“I am saying that fully staffed, professionally run campaigns have never challenged Burgess in this district.”
MR: Democrats are really motivated right now, but Michael Burgess usually wins this district by 15 to 25 points. Will the motivation still be there in November 2018 and how feasible is unseating Burgess?
Fisher: I think the energy will be there. I’m not really concerned about that. I actually see energy growing and building. We really don’t know what the point spread is in this district. We know what it has been during prior elections, but Burgess has never been challenged. I’m not saying people have never run against him. I am saying that fully staffed, professionally run campaigns have never challenged Burgess in this district. Of course, it’s a 20-point district. It would never have any reason to be anything other than that based on the type of challenge that Burgess has had in this district.
Additionally, given what we have seen very recently with Charlottesville and Trump’s response, which was just horrendous. His failure to do the most basic thing that a President of the United States needs to do, which is to condemn Nazis, he failed at. And what did Michael Burgess do? Michael Burgess got on video and said: “I agree with President Trump, period.” We should not be surprised in 2018 if moderates pull away from Michael Burgess. Michael Burgess has continued to show he is interested in aligning himself with Trump, regardless of Trump or Michael’s lack of a moral compass. I think that will come back to bite them because in their hearts Americans are moral people. I think they often get blinded by partisanship, but in their hearts, they are moral people. Seeing the Ku Klux Klan and Nazis marching through the streets in Charlottesville is an awakening moment for Americans and I am seeing it.
MR: What was your personal reaction to what happened in Charlottesville?
Fisher: It’s despicable, it’s frightening, it made me sick to my stomach. I got on social media right away and denounced it. It’s one thing to allow free speech, but what our Constitution does not guarantee is the right to go out into the streets and incite violence. I am an attorney I have studied the Constitution. That is not the type of speech that is protected in the Constitution. This idea that we would say that there is fault on both sides, no! There was one group going out into the streets and advocating for violence and hate crimes against minorities and that sickens me. My grandfather was a veteran of World War II and he would be sickened by this. It is the duty of people like myself, white privileged men, who have every privilege that this country can afford someone to step up and to speak out now. If you haven’t spoken out yet you now have a moral obligation to do so. I feel very strongly about that.
MR: How would you assess Donald Trump’s first seven months in office? Has it been just as bad as expected?
Fisher: He seems ignorant and unable to make government work more than anything. He certainly appears to have malice toward minorities. You saw the travel ban. I thought that was another scar on America’s reputation as a land of opportunity that holds open the door for freedom loving individuals to come and take their shot at the American dream. But mostly they just can’t get anything done. They fought among themselves over health care. They have a majority in both the House and the Senate and they have been talking for eight years now about repealing Obamacare and they had multiple cracks at it and they couldn’t even do that. His ability as a leader, I have no respect for his ability to actually lead, which is what a President needs to do.
Setting Trump aside for a second, Trump is what he is. I am certainly not surprised by any of this because I was shouting from the rooftops back in 2015 and 2016 that this is what we needed to be trying to avoid. I am mostly disappointed in our representatives and senators. I think that they have a moral compass and Michael Burgess has done nothing but show he’s a political puppet and someone is pulling the strings whether in the White House or in House leadership. He is not thinking for himself. He is doing the bidding of his donors. He receives ungodly amounts of money from Blue Cross Blue Shield. I believe he receives more than any other congressperson or senator from Blue Cross Blue Shield. So it shouldn't surprise us then, although being a doctor and apparently valuing the lives of humans, he helps author and he supports a bill that would have taken health care away from 23 million people. So I am mostly disappointed in the representatives in the House and in the Senate who seem to have just completely lost their way and their moral center.
“[Michael Burgess] will not turn on Trump until it is politically what he needs to do to get re-elected.”
MR: Do you see that changing at all? Do you think people like Michael Burgess are ever going to stand up to Trump?
Fisher: (laughs) If you were ever going to step up when would be the time to do it? After Nazis march in the streets. So the fact that Burgess got up the same day Trump was doing his moral equivocation and said “I agree with President Trump, period, full stop,” I have no hope. He will not turn on Trump until it is politically what he needs to do to get re-elected.
MR: What do you think about what is going on in Texas in terms of legislation targeting minority groups?
Fisher: It seems like we have given the keys to the asylum to the inmates. This is what happens when you allow gerrymandering to exist. When the Voting Rights Act is kneecapped. You end up allowing the extremists to control the political dialogue. You’re not ever going to hear me say just because someone has an R at the end of their name that they are inherently immoral or unable to govern. I don’t think that’s the case. I highly respect those Republicans who may view policy different from me, but view bipartisanship as a value to be sought after. What you saw in Austin this past year is a fringe of extremists who threatened to primary the other Republicans if they wouldn't follow their extremist agenda. Thankfully we have a speaker in the [Texas] House, Joe Straus, who I think was quite effective at tempering that extremist agenda to a point.
The conversation here was very damaging though. Even though some of these things did not become law, the conversation about turning transgender people into a target, particularly transgender children, is sad. It is abhorrent. It’s very frustrating for someone who views government as something that can be good. I view government when it’s well-funded and well-organized to be a capital G good in our society. When it’s used as a weapon against minorities like it was in Austin this past session and special session it’s disheartening. It is the result of gerrymandering and voter suppression where you have districts in Texas where Democrats don't feel like they can get elected and voters don’t go to the polls because they feel like their vote doesn’t have any value.
Our job is to fight to get representatives elected even though it is an uphill battle. Like it or not, we have a gerrymandered system. We hope that the Supreme Court will step in and the justice system will help correct that wrong, but we have to fight to get representatives elected even though we have the system that we do so that we can change the system. My message to voters is that we need to get out and vote and organize even if it feels hopeless at times. Because 2018 is a chance for us. A chance for Republicans to stay home because they will likely be frustrated with their own party. If there’s a chance for us to get some moral representatives in Congress in Texas then we can change some of the rules that devalue the individual vote of Texans.
MR: How do you think gerrymandering affects you in your district?
Fisher: It is still to be seen. It’s hard to know, frankly. I know the ruling just came down that there were two districts that were ruled to have been gerrymandered on a racial basis and those will be redistricted. Certainly [TX-26] feels like a gerrymandered district from a partisan standpoint. We are going to find out in October when the Supreme Court hears the Wisconsin case whether partisan gerrymandering, that is non-race based, whether that itself violates the Constitution. I will reserve my opinion on that until the Supreme Court rules. I want to hear their thoughts and read that opinion before I have my own conclusions on that.
Certainly, partisan gerrymandering doesn't feel right in a democracy. It just feels wrong. Putting the Constitution aside for a second, from a gut moralistic perspective it doesn’t feel right to gerrymander a district. Most Americans want fair representation. When your party is in power you might think this is great and it makes it easier for my representative to get elected, but when your party is not in power it feels like you are disadvantaged as a voter. I don't think that's healthy for a democracy. A well-run democracy requires voter involvement. Anything that devalues the effect of one vote runs the risk of reducing voter involvement, which hurts us all in the long run.
MR: Why should voters support you next November and in the upcoming Democratic primary?
Fisher: I’m a descendant of immigrants like most people in this country. My ancestors came here for economic opportunity and religious freedom. They came here because there was this concept that you could work and if you work hard you can succeed economically in this country. The American dream for some groups was never a reality, but for many people it was. We had an entire generation come home from the war. We established a 40-hour work week. College, for many, became a reality. Starter homes and two cars in your garage became a reality.
My concern is that we stopped yearning for more. We stopped fighting for more. While true economic poverty has always been an issue in our country, what you are seeing today is a poverty of hope.
In other words, it is a poverty of people feeling like the American dream doesn’t work anymore. Like there is something broken with that system that at one time allowed their parents and grandparents to work hard and succeed. You are seeing young families delay having kids. Young families delay buying a house. Young families with student loans that make investing or saving for retirement impossible. What you are seeing is the American dream is no longer available for all Americans. We have accepted it will work for some, but only for some and not all. This is dangerous because our system is based on the idea that if you work hard you can get ahead.
Our revolution is a revolution of instilling hope again in this merit based system and this idea that all Americans can work hard and get ahead. I chafe at the idea that Democrats don’t have a message. Anybody who tells me that I say you need to come to north Texas and you need to hear me and hear some of the other candidates that are running.
Because this is what we are talking about. Getting sick should not lead to bankruptcy. An education shouldn’t cost more than your parent’s starter home. Discrimination shouldn’t mean that your employer can fire you because you are gay. We have to remind voters that this is what America stands for. That there are barriers that stand in the way of the American dream. We need to start electing representatives who will help remove those barriers.
It’s not just about winning a political race this is about building a movement. It’s about building a revolution. A revolution of hope in the American dream. That we can build America from the bottom up and stop this nonsense with trickle down economics, which never reaches the working class. The working class consistently remains on the outs of that theory. So that’s what I am fighting for. We are the frog in the hot water and the American dream has been eroded, eroded, eroded, and now we are at the boiling point.
Let me give you my theory for what happened in 2016. Basically, the American dream was working pretty well for white men for a long time and we reached a point where it stopped. All of a sudden you see this whole white male privilege thing come out and you saw a backlash in America in 2016. I think minority folks were saying that you are all dealing with now what we have been dealing with the whole time. The reaction is someone like Donald Trump who came to the forefront and said I will take it back to how it was and that got a lot of people excited. They remembered culturally, at least, a time when people could work hard and get ahead. And now that only applied to some people. There were whole segments of our society where that was not the truth. That is what I am fighting for. I am fighting to make sure that America going forward can rely on the system that if we work hard we can get ahead. At some point, we are going to get sick and it shouldn’t bankrupt us. Those are the type of things that we need to fix in our system so that people can once again hope and believe in the American dream. That is why I am running.
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