...And "strikeouts are fascist" (- Crash Davis, Bull Durham)
Hit Bull, Win a steak. Hit Grass, win a salad.
He is supporting arguably the most conservative statewide Democrat in the state, who did us all a fat favor about nine years ago when a hardscrabble school district pitching a court suit to a Texas Supreme Court stacked with DemonRats, including Lloyd Doggett (a Daschle wannabe, now in the U.S. House), threw the state's supplementary education funding formula into a shredder.
Power DemonRats, led by the then Lite Gov (whom Dubya lists as a mentor -- urp!) used the melee to insist that it was time for Texas to roll over for a state income tax. They got a corporate income tax by overhauling the existing franchise tax, but public opposition was firmed up by John Sharp, who scrubbed the budget and proved that the DemonRat leadership was just lying like a rug about not being able to find any more budget cuts -- Sharp came up with hundreds of millions in possible cuts and trade-offs. The bigtime DemonRats hated his guts for it, but he kept the state income-tax wolf away from the door.
Now Sharp is being used as the only white guy near the top of the ticket as they roll out the "new Democratic Party" -- all black and brown at the top. The Rats are relying on Sharp to get the East Texas Piney Woods "yellow dog" Democrats to come out, but they didn't show for the primaries.......the Rats' consultants think the "yellow dogs" are toast, they're staying home for the primaries and the menfolk will break for the GOP in the fall. The 'Rats are running a slackwire act, trying to keep from losing Piney Woods white votes faster than they can machine up race-driven straight-ticket votes in the barrio and in the black community. Hence the endorsement from Ryan, which could be big. If it works.