When people talk about elections having consequences, they usually mean that winners get to exert their will over the lawmaking process.
But election consequences are often more subtle than that.
Consider the case of state Rep. Ina Minjarez, the San Antonio Democrat who has devoted much of her time in the Legislature to finding common ground on issues that cut across the partisan divide, such as foster care reform and cyberbullying.
This year, however, Minjarez grew frustrated with a relentless GOP culture-war agenda that ignored urgent problems (the state’s fragile power grid; the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic) in favor of targeting transgender kids and critical race theory, allowing permitless carry of handguns, restricting voting access, and weaponizing private citizens to enforce a near-total abortion ban.
So she decided to walk away.
Last week, Minjarez, one of the…
