Before Robert "Beto" Francis O'Rourke's frenetic mannerisms, weird statements, and bold call for total gun confiscation knocked him out of the Democrat presidential primaries, he was considered one of the great hopes of the Democrat Party in Texas. After all, in 2018, in the great, red state of Texas, he had almost beaten Senator Ted Cruz's bid for re-election.

Eliz Markowitz was Beto's designated successor and really thought she could win in Texas House District 28, a Houston suburb. But just like Beto, Markowitz flamed out, although more spectacularly than Beto did.

Markowitz, a Ph.D. who calls herself "doctor" (making her as pretentious as Jill Biden), is a garden-variety 21st-century Democrat. With her specialty in teacher training, Markowitz's major platform stance was about education. Mostly, she wanted more money for public schools, although she should get kudos for promoting vocational training.

Markowitz also wanted more Obamacare, an end to the war on drugs and "mass incarceration," the usual climate change wealth redistribution and return to a pre-modern era, gun control, immigration reform that sounds remarkably like a call for amnesty and open borders, and an end to photo ID for elections. No wonder the Democrat establishment fell in love with her.

That love meant that Markowitz's defeat wasn't for want of trying on the part of that same Democrat establishment. Beto himself was at her side most of the way (which might have been part of her problem). Beto also placed at her disposal Powered by People, a political action committee that he had founded. The PAC put 1,000 people on the ground to help Markowitz's campaign.

If that kind of manpower wasn't enough, the perennial promise of turning Texas blue brought Markowitz outside help, too. Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, LPAC ("the future is female queer intersectional OURS") and EMILY's List were among the leftist political groups that gave her their support and helped her raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from donors outside Texas.

That kind of support also helped Markowitz catch the eye of national presidential candidates. She received endorsements from Biden and Warren.

In addition, both Michael Bloomberg and Julián "abortion rights for transgender women" Castro campaigned at her side.

Yet Markowitz still lost.

Not only did she lose, but she lost badly. Her Republican opponent, Gary Gates, beat her by 16 points. Although District 28 has historically voted Republican, this was one of the districts that Beto almost won when he ran against Ted Cruz in 2018. Even Hillary lost it by only 10 points when she was running against Trump in 2016. Given that trend — Hillary loses by 10 points, Beto by only 3 points — it was reasonable to believe that Markowitz could eke out a victory. But it was not to be.

It's tempting to look at off-season local races and read into them national trends. It's especially tempting to Democrats when they win in an off-season election.

For now, we'll say only that, in the midst of a booming economy and a presidential impeachment that Americans are assiduously ignoring, enough voters turned out in an off-season Texas election to give a Republican candidate for the House of Representatives a resounding victory. Make of that what you will.