How weird attack signs (and Gov. Abbott) helped Fort Worth candidates beat the far right | Opinion

John McQueeney hit the jackpot Tuesday night.

But not until the last spin of the wheel.

In March, the Fort Worth trucking executive and fast-food franchisee trailed fellow Republican Cheryl Bean by a daunting 20 points in the primary for an open Texas House seat in southwest Fort Worth. On Tuesday, he lagged a handful of votes behind her most of the night.

But at nearly 11 p.m., after the Hyatt Place TCU bar had taken away the wagyu sliders and darkened the lights from the victory party, McQueeney burst ahead to win the nomination for the District 97 seat in November against Democrat Carlos Walker, a former Fort Worth teacher, coach and principal.

Call it a big-money play.

McQueeney banked a late $1.9 million in campaign money, $1.3 million of it from casino executive and Dallas Mavericks owner Dr. Miriam Adelson and the rest from Gov. Greg Abbott and a Texas police political committee.

That sealed McQueeney’s victory over Bean, a construction executive and charter school board member backed by Attorney General Ken Paxton and the party’s church-MAGA clique.

Back in March, Bean fell only 77 votes short of winning without a runoff. But since then, McQueeney had picked up endorsements and money from Abbott, plus the backing of former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price in her home House district.

Both the McQueeney-Bean race and congressional candidate Craig Goldman’s runaway victory over Fort Worth Republican John O’Shea became proxy fights pitting Abbott and business Republicans against the MAGA wing and Attorney General Ken Paxton.

Bean, a longtime Fort Worth Republican volunteer and trustee for the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts, can blame her loss on O’Shea’s weak, unstructured campaign. A political action committee’s bizarre, over-the-top attack ads against Goldman may have hurt her, too.

The giant red signs blamed Goldman in nonsensical language for “kids trans surgeries” and “illegals voting” and “tax $ for kids gender transition care,” and everything else bad but dust storms, scorpions and dandruff.

The signs were apparently meant to help O’Shea.

Instead, they were so lowbrow and repellent, they brought voters out for hometown favorite Goldman. His voters also heavily supported McQueeney.

Benbrook Republican Shellie Gardner finished fourth in the March congressional primary. She said she called voters for Goldman on Tuesday because he has experience in Congress going back to the 1990s with then-U.S. Sen. Phil Gramm, an economist.

“I was heartened to hear so many people say they were voting for Craig in response to all the negative ads — nobody wants to see that,” she said at Goldman’s victory party at Courtside Kitchen.

“People were pretty bothered. It didn’t take very much research to see that the signs were very thin. They were either half-truths or outright lies.”

In a conversation on reddit.com, where local politics is almost never the topic, commenters mentioned the signs.

One wrote: “It just looks like a very public burn book written by an insane person.”

Another: “They make our area look like we’re inhabited by literal morons.”

Goldman simply said he didn’t expect “big red illegal signs put up all over the district. ... I personally think it worked against them.”

Goldman defeated O’Shea, 63%-37%. He faces Fort Worth Democrat Trey Hunt in November.

If you wonder why he or anyone wants to go to Congress these days, it might be better than staying in Austin.

The runoff victory Tuesday by House Speaker Dade Phelan of Beaumont, overcoming a challenger backed loudly by Paxton, former President Donald Trump and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, all but ensures complete gridlock in the next session of the Texas Legislature.

Abbott might be able to get school vouchers and other priorities passed. But little else.

“Obviously, Governor Abbott’s very popular right now,” said state Sen. Kelly Hancock of Westlake, who introduced Goldman.

Obviously, Abbott put his money on the winners.