Dayna Steele should find some solace in her run for Congress with the great news that Texas voters seem to have no problem electing Houston radio personalities for public office.

Less great news: The two examples are current Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and former Houston city council member Michael Berry.

Worse news: Steele is running as a Democrat in a district so Republican that its lines - from flappy ears on the border with Louisiana to a trunk down around Baytown - kind of resemble the profile of an elephant’s noggin.

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Steele, a former disc jockey and self-styled “First Lady of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” hopes to dislodge Brian Babin from the congressional seat representing the dense forests and oft-overflowing rivers of deep Southeast Texas.

That area, the still-shiny and new(ish) 36th Congressional District, re-elected Babin in 2016 with nearly 89 percent of the vote against a Green Party candidate. When Babin faced an actual opponent in 2014, he achieved a squeaker of a victory, 79 percent to 22 percent.

A miracle of modern gerrymandering, the 36th Congressional District stretches from Beltway 8 to the boondocks, carefully circumventing Beaumont and Galveston, where the big city liberals only elect Republican congressman with 62 percent of the vote.

The district is the 15th most Republican in the nation, according to the most recent Cook Partisan Voter Index report, which would be more impressive if Texas didn’t also contain Nos. 1, 2, 8 and 12 spread out to that forgotten world on the other side of Interstate 35.

State leaders carved out the 36th district, with its forestation and oft-overflowing rivers, after the 2010 census, creating a district so heavily in favor of Republican leadership, the citizens actually let slimeball Steve Stockman run the show for a couple of years because he had an (R) next to his name.

Stockman, you may recall, sits in jail to this day for his sketchy fundraising efforts while representing the 36th CD. Stockman has ironically had his life limited for skimming funds meant for the non-profit Life Without Limits.

Babin, a dentist and former mayor of Woodville -- named for our second governor, not the neighboring Big Thicket - emerged soon after. He was seemingly pressed right out of the Texas Republican’s Play-Doh Fun Factory, down to the custom-made boots he pairs with his dark suits (neither of which could most of his constituents ever dream to afford).

Babin actually did put himself through school working as a janitor and other roles, so he’s not some generational elitist out of touch with those usually voting for him. And he is a consistent and reliable Republican, representing the people in his district just about how they’d like.

He’s a perfect low-key congressman for a low-visibility area where political futures were once decided based on having the last name Daniel (see: Price Daniel Sr., Price Daniel Jr., the Susan Dey movie Bed of Lies).

Steele, who touts herself as “the Voice for Southeast Texas” in an admirably subtle reference to her past career in the booth, meanwhile bangs a predictable Democratic drum from her home in Seabrook. She does little to distinguish herself from any mainline Democrat, proffering her positions as pro-choice, pro-gun background check, pro-socialized medicine. She calls for job creation, then contradicts that with pleas to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

She does, however, have endorsements from Joan Jett, Melissa Ethridge and David Crosby, though it’s doubtful the musicians will get registered in the 36th CD in time to vote for her.

The biggest buzz so far from Steele’s campaign was another endorsement, this one from Babin’s former campaign manager Jon-Marc McDonald, who reportedly had a falling out with the congressman upon coming out of the closet back in 1998. That was back when Babin was trying to take Charlie Wilson’s old 2nd District, which didn’t turn fully Republican until the redistricting of the early 2000s.

The incident, including claims by McDonald that Babin spoke despairingly of homosexuals in private, doesn’t say much for Babin’s embrace of the gay community. But then again, Winnie and Anahuac aren’t exactly The Montrose.

(Vidor and Jasper also lie in the 36th district. There will be no discussion of those towns.)

Steele served up the soundtrack to many lives in the Houston area during her time spinning records on KLOL and other stations. Her post-DJ life has been exemplary, writing a few books, founding an online business and, most laudably, creating an online community to encourage and help girls study science, technology, engineering and math (the vaunted STEM areas), “Smart Girls Rock.”

She comes thisclose to understanding the mindset of many in her rural chunk of Southeast Texas, evidenced by the uber-tacky campaign Dodge Ram pickup with a full-body graphic wrap that includes the preamble to the Constitution and a Human Rights Campaign equal sign (bonus points given for the “not actual size” on the cabin-sized photo of the candidate). She’d be closer to the Southeast Texas norm, though, if she had added a four-inch lift kit and some smoke stacks in the bed for “rolling coal.”

Steele’s smart enough to know flipping the district, the cabeza de elefante, would be a bigger upset than the Battle of Midway. Or when the kids from The School of Rock beat No Vacancy in the Battle of the Bands.

Like many Democrats in this year of the mythological Blue Wave, Steele has raised a substantial amount of money — $511,110 at the end of the last reporting period. But like most Democrats in Texas, that’s money ill spent. Money is a measure of passion, not popularity. But even so, the milquetoast Babin campaign has raised $885,268 in the same timeframe.

And the money isn’t at all necessary. Voters in the 36th Congressional District will no doubt return Babin to Washington. In that area, the name before the party designation is irrelevant.

Reynolds is a writer living in Houston. He's on Twitter @RoyRReynolds.