Opinion: Texas Democrats flopped in 2020 but could flip the House in 2022
Paul Stekler
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Former Texas congressman Beto O Rourke, left, meets Phil Enano, while canvassing the Brookstone neighborhood for Texas House District 121 Democratic candidate Celina Montoya, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2020. O Rourke joined with the Texas Organizing Project to campaign for various Democratic candidates including Montoya.Jerry Lara, Staff / San Antonio Express-News
The November election results were a disaster for Texas Democrats. There were strong candidate recruits across the board, campaign contributions pouring in, hope for flipping the Texas House, even talk of Joe Biden winning the state all for naught. No new Democratic member of Congress, no state House gains. Now that the dust has settled, what actually happened?
Money running out
The job market in Las Vegas has been the hardest-hit among large US metro areas during the pandemic. The region is heavily reliant upon travel, discretionary spending, business conferences and large gatherings, but has seen those key spigots turned off.
In April 2020, shutdowns resulted in a 34% unemployment rate in Las Vegas. Although it’s improved since then, Las Vegas still has the highest unemployment rate among large metro areas, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
As of November 2020, Las Vegas metro area’s unemployment rate was 11.5%, and 128,000 people including Muoio remained out of work.
After being furloughed in March, Muoio was permanently laid off in August.
Las Vegas, the hardest-hit metro economy in America, just suffered another blow
In the run-up to the Consumer Electronics Show last year, Gina Muoio was pulling 60-to-80-hour weeks at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
Muoio worked as an event coordinator for a third-party electrical vendor and carefully choreographed the power needs for exhibitors, presenters and attendees at trade shows held in the massive hall.
“There are very long days, and you’re on your feet the entire time,” said Muoio, 39. “Sometimes you don’t even have time to eat.”
During a typical January, the presence of CES in and around Las Vegas is unmistakable. Hotel prices skyrocket, restaurants and clubs are packed, and workers like Muoio log extra hours to ensure everything goes on without a hitch for the major money-making show and related events. Last year, the 170,000 CES attendees were estimated to have generated $169 million in direct spending and a broader economic impact of $291
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Sheldon Adelson, with his wife, Miriam, talks with then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before a 2017 speech by President Trump at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
Updated at 12:27 p.m. ET
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of the most prolific donors in conservative politics, died Monday night at the age of 87 due to complications from treatment for non-Hodgkin s lymphoma, according to a statement from Las Vegas Sands, the company he founded.
Forbes in the casino hotel industry. He spent much of it backing conservative politicians in the U.S. and Israel, shaping the political debate of both countries.
He was in the first wave of superwealthy Americans to take advantage of the Supreme Court s controversial
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The coronavirus pandemic devastated North American hospitality labor union Unite Here, leaving as much as 98 percent of the 300,000-member organization across the U.S. and Canada last year without a job.
The job cuts keep coming to the greater hotel industry, especially in higher-cost labor markets with a heavily unionized workforce. The U.S. hotel industry unemployment rate remains significantly out of step with the national average.
This week the rhetoric from union leaders toward the major hotel companies became even more heated as new layoffs loom, after they watched for months their members lose their livelihoods in earlier cuts.