DALLAS — Texas Democrats will have a reason to vote in the primary next year with a potentially competitive race shaping up between Mike Collier and Matthew Dowd, the two candidates running for lieutenant governor.
What's the difference between the two men?
Collier and Dowd explained what they think are the two biggest problems facing Texas today, thoughts on running against each other, and who they would like to see at the top of the Democratic ballot for governor. WFAA's Teresa Woodard interviewed both men for this week's episode of Y'all-itics political podcast. Click below to listen to the podcast with analysis.
Collier, an accountant by trade, came tantalizing close to victory in the same race during the 2018 general election. Collier finished within five percentage points of incumbent Dan Patrick. Democrats were also more motivated to vote that year as then-Congressman Beto O'Rourke was challenging Sen. Ted Cruz. Still, Collier points out, he outperformed O'Rourke in certain areas.
But in the three years since then, Collier said he's learned one specific lesson.
"I now know the importance of having a very, very robust, skilled, professional campaign operation. When I ran in 2018, it was not a robust campaign operation," Collier told the podcast. Many of the campaign staff that President Biden had in Texas are now working for Collier, he said. Watch the entire uncut interview with Collier below:
Both Collier and Dowd support the Second Amendment and have similar views on how to reduce gun violence. But Dowd, who said he owns five guns, told WFAA that he supports rolling back the Permitless Carry law that the state legislature finally passed this year which allows anyone who can legally carry a firearm to do so in public without any kind of training or a permit.
"We should rollback this permitless carry thing. Most Republicans, if you gave the truth serum, think it's outrageous that we've done this anyway. Democrats think it's outrageous. Independents think it's outrageous," Dowd told Y'all-itics.
Dowd is a political strategist who worked for Texas Democratic Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and Gov. Ann Richards in the 1990s before switching parties to become a Republican and work for President George W. Bush in the 2000s before a public split with him. Dowd, who lives in Wimberley, later worked for ABC News as an on-air political analyst. See Dowd's uncut interview with WFAA below:
