In 2014 David E. Cozad was the last Texas Democrat to file for the U.S. House of Representatives. March 7th 2015 he became the first Congressional candidate in Texas to officially launch his 2016 Congressional Campaign.
Cozad's supporters clapped and padded their feet to the music of The Ackermans of Texas and cheered when David Cozad told them his kick-off was occurring in Meadowbrook (far East Fort Worth) "because when the votes were tallied last November, I was humbled to learn that I'd recieved the highest percentage of votes cast in any Congressional District in Texas for a non-incumbent Democrat." Cozad told the crowd: "You did that!"And I thank you!" "if you walked for any Democrat last year, if you phoned for any Democrat last year, if you gave money or volunteered for any Democrat last year, you helped them and you helped me and I thank you!" he said.''
With a small, totally volunteer staff, Cozad stretched a little over $13,000 through the Primary and General Elections. Other challengers had staff and raised more money. The philosophy of the Cozad campaign was to create everything possible in-house and to improvise without taking any short-cuts on following the F.E.C. law.
One staffer told him that they epitomized the rural idiom: "If you don't own a horse, ride a cow!' Cozad said he's willing to ride a goat or sheep if necessary to get the job done and return some sanity to Congress..
The former U.S. Marine Corps officer attributes the solid blue majority in all of the precincts in Meadowbrook and adjacent Handley to the combined work of the Wendy Davis campaign, the Leticia Van de Putte campaign, the Libby Willis campaign, the Gwinda Burns Judicial Campaign and the Nicole Collier State Representative Campaign and to an "incredible group of persistent volunteers."
He explained that having been drafted to run only a few days before filing deadline, in 2014 he did not have a year for preparation and fundraising. Therefore many voters in Tarrant County and some of the two counties south of Tarrant did not get his message. In Meadowbrook and Handley.
He said: "When my volunteers walked, they never handed out just my push cards. They made sure that they had something with at least a photograph and a short write-up on every Democratic candidate on the ballot in the precincts we walked." Cozad said: "If a campaign did not furnish us their literature, my volunteers found some individual who would run something off on their home computers. We helped them to be sure and get the disclaimers correct and legal."
"Now we know what will work. Now we know how to turn out the voters. Now we know that when we work together we can persuade people to vote Democratic. In a tough mid-term election year what we saw work in Meadowbrook and Handley is what I intend to see happen in 2016 throughout the entire US Texas 6th District."
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The Texas 6th seat in the US House has been occupied by a Republican ever since Phil Gramm switched from the Democratic party and ran as a Republican. Joe Barton was picked by Gramm as his successor and has been a darling of the fossil fuel industry. He became infamous when he "apologized" to British Petroleum for President Obama requiring them to put part of the money it would take to help the Gulf Coast recover from the Valdez Oil Spill into escrow. That occurred when Cozad was running against Joe the first time.
Lon Burnam and David Cozad share a passion for development without endangering the health and safety of present or future generations.
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David's daughter Caitlin and granddaughter Piper are two of the reasons David is running for Congress. Fundamentally in disagreement with Joe Barton, Cozad sees much of Barton's energy policy as endangering the future for Piper's generation.
Barton and Cozad differ on the environment and they disagree on how to go about creating jobs and building the U.S. economy. Cozad isn't afraid to "wear his commitment to best practices on his tee shirt."
Barton sold business forms before getting into politics. Cozad was an officer in the US. Marine Corps. asigned to a nuclear artillery unit during the Cold war. He has bachelor degrees in Math and Physics, and graduate study in Software engineering and a teaching certificate. Cozad also has held several stock licenses. Cozad has an extensive and impressive business resume. He told his audience Saturday night: "I know something about innovation. I was the project engineer on the software project for the first cell phone to send text messages and have voice mail capabilities. He saw the project though beta testing and implementation in the Nevada and NW Coast regions, Argentina and Singapore. He said: "That was one project which revolutionized the telecommunications industry and I made good money for my contributions to it. There are other projects out there for American ingenuity and innovation which will touch lives in transformative ways, The leaders of the future are not all in India or China, my friends." Cozad said. "Many of them are here in Texas. they are your sons and daughters and grandchildren, and neighbors. They deserve opportunities that will keep them working here in our community at jobs with a future where they earn and receive good pay."
Cozad says these are just a few of the reasons he's running for Congress. He says he knows that we must face "our nation's challenges the American Way." He says: "Yes, I'll work for sustainable energy and to keep the environment livable for future generations. What's more American than clean water, and an outdoors where you can live and work and play without it making you sick!"
"What's more American than figuring out a better way to keep our families and our neighborhoods safe? What's more American than educating our kids and preparing young people for exciting futures where they can innovate and find new cures for diseases, better modes of transportation, and technologies we haven't even dreamt of!"'
"What's more American than paying everyone a fair wage for a fair day's labor! It's certainly not American to short-change a worker on pay day because of his or her gender, sexual orientation or race!" Cozad continued: "Every Republican in both houses of Congress voted against the Pay Day Fairness Act. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. But it is, and I find that just plain not American!"
As "an army brat" and a former U.S. Marine Corps officer, Cozad says he finds the "disrespectful rhetoric" of the Speaker of the House and Ted Cruz" highly inappropriate." Cozad explained: "Attempting to under mind our nation's Commander-in-Chief, especially while American troops are deployed overseas, is much more serious than mere disrespect between colleagues. President Obama is doing his job as it is outlined in the Constitution of the United States," and Cozad continued: "I am proud that he's our President and Commander-in-Chief. President Obama led this nation out of the depths of the Bush Great Recession and the Tea Party Depression. ... The Democratic Party continues fighting for social justice through policies which make our nation an upwardly mobile where folks work hard and get to move up the ladder." '
Cozad said: "We don't use people's health and safety as a political bargaining chip."
He said that we'll have opportunity to share a lot more this year as we prepare for 201. We'll talk about entitlements. About how there's absolutely NO SHAME in receiving WHAT YOU'RE ENTITLED TO!. There is shame," Cozad said, "in politicians robbing the Social Security Turst Fund so that it looks like the budget is more balanced than it really is!"
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