The Only Thing Broken Is Mike Collier’s Ego

From Nueces County to Austin, the work is happening where Mike Collier isn’t.

If you didn’t hear the news, the former losing Lt. Governor candidate, Mike Collier, is running again… this time as an Independent. He said in an interview on WFAA’s Inside Politics, “We have a real problem in politics. The two-party system is not working. We have a two-party system that elects guys like Dan Patrick.”

First of all, cute branding. But it’s completely ahistorical and honestly insulting.

Patrick is in office because Republicans have held every statewide office in Texas since 1994, not because “both parties” magically conjured him up. Dan Patrick specifically beat Collier twice in partisan matchups. The only people who could’ve stopped Dan Patrick those years were Texas voters turning out and voting against him, not some hypothetical Independent Savior.

Blaming “the two-party system” instead of Republican power + structural barriers, + turnout is lazy. And throwing Texas Democrats in with DC dysfunction is extra galling when Texas Dems literally broke quorum and left the state to fight GOP redistricting. Vikki Goodwin herself was one of the Dems targeted by Paxton to have her seat declared vacant for that stand.

What Mike Collier was really selling in his interview.

If you strip out the “I’m just a humble CPA” vibe, his pitch is basically the same platform as a Texas Democrat (public ed, anti-voucher, abortion rights, THC/cannabis reform, casino resorts to fund schools). But with a different label and a “party of one” schtick, so he can:

• Avoid a primary.

• Avoid party discipline or accountability.

• Brand himself as above it all while still relying on the same voters Dems need to beat Dan Patrick.

He literally says his policy positions haven’t changed “one bit” since he ran as a Democrat. He’s not offering a new ideological lane. He’s simply repackaging the Democratic policy lane as “independent,” which only makes sense if his main goal is to escape the Democratic brand while still courting Democratic voters.

That’s personal rebranding.

Even Collier admitted in the interview that no independent has won a statewide office in Texas in 100 years. So what’s this stunt all about?

Splitting the Democratic vote.

It does nothing to peel off the MAGA/GOP base that loves Dan Patrick.

Functionally, he’s a spoiler campaign.

So, why is he doing this?

We can’t read his mind, but we certainly can speculate.

Ego + unfinished business. He’s already “the guy who almost beat Dan Patrick” (2018) and then got shellacked in 2022. An independent run lets him keep chasing that dragon without having to admit the party moved on to Goodwin.

Branding + donor lane. A “responsible independent accountant” brand is attractive to corporate/wealthy donors who hate Patrick’s chaos but don’t want to fund an actual Democrat, and Media folks who love “both sides are broken” narratives.

He lost the intra-Dem narrative battle. Once Goodwin jumped in and started actually building a statewide case as a Democrat, it was always going to be messy for him to demand the nomination again. Running as an independent solves his problem (no primary, no party rules), and creates ours (vote splitting).

Here would be my questions for Mike Collier:

1. Where have you been since 2022? Because you lost and disappeared. You haven’t been showing up for Texans, like Vikki Goodwin has, so why should Texans show up for you? (They shouldn’t.)

2. Considering that the Texas Democratic Party and the National Democratic Party are not ideologically aligned, the TDP being to the left, why are you not ashamed to lump them in together? Do you even follow Texas politics?

3. Did you really blame Texas Democrats for electing Dan Patrick? (We all heard it.)

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The Secretary of State’s Office Candidate Website is finally up and running.

As you are aware, official candidate filings opened up on November 8 and will continue until December 8. You can see who has filed and been qualified, meaning they will be on the March ballot HERE.

I’m also trying to keep my list(s) up to date. I just updated it again this morning:

• Who Will Be On The 2026 State Ballot?

• Who Will Be On The 2026 Federal Ballot?

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

While I did a lot of updates this morning, I didn’t look for/add websites’ social media, but I will do that later this week when I have more time.

It seems more Republicans have filed so far than Democrats; however, when looking through the filings, more Republican incumbents have filed.

Sometimes candidates wait until the last possible moment to file, even though they intended to all along. When I talk to the candidates who do this, they always say it’s strategic to wait and see if this person will run or to stop a potential opponent. Whatever floats their boat. Just know that more are coming.

Add Nueces County to the list of things I keep forgetting.

Don’t take it personally, my head is on that list, too. I recently discussed Texas House races and was looking at 2022 data, completely leaving out HD34, which is a flippable seat this time around, which I keep thinking about at the worst times, like when I’m driving or about to go to sleep.

I spoke with the Democratic County Chair in Nueces County several months back, and she wanted to tell me about the numbers and all of the exciting work that was going on down there, but we never got a chance to connect.

There are a handful of counties, Nueces among them, that should be blue but have struggled with low turnout in recent elections. Some of those other counties include Jefferson and Bell. However, each is dealing with their own set of unique circumstances.

But in 2026, if Nueces County can really pull it together, they can flip up to two Texas House seats, one SBOE seat, and the partisan leanings of their County Commissioner Court. I’ll have to follow up with an article with all the data soon.

From Mike Collier to Nueces County, we’ve got work to do.

If Mike Collier wants to run again, that’s his right. But he doesn’t get to rewrite history or pretend that Democrats are the problem. The only thing the two-party system ever did wrong was give him two chances to prove he could win, and he didn’t.

Texas Democrats have spent the last three years organizing, registering voters, fighting vouchers, defending teachers, and standing up for reproductive rights in a state that keeps trying to silence them. Collier has spent those same years off the radar, only to reappear now with a new label and the same platform, asking for the same voters he abandoned.

That’s ego.

Meanwhile, people like Vikki Goodwin are actually in the trenches, doing the work. County chairs like those in Nueces, Jefferson, and Bell are rebuilding ground games that can flip seats and shift county governments. The future of Texas isn’t going to come from a man running alone under a “party of one” banner. It’s going to come from Democrats showing up for each other, precinct by precinct, county by county, until this state finally reflects the people who live in it.

So if Collier really wants to help Texas, he can start by stepping aside.

• Who Will Be On The 2026 State Ballot?

• Who Will Be On The 2026 Federal Ballot?

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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