In our democracy, extremist candidates can win. And once they start winning, they can keep winning.

Let’s look at one example. Let’s take the example of Lou Gohmert in Texas, a socially-ultra conservative. He recently voted against a bill intended to promote the recruitment of women scientists. He said:

“women were created for one thing and one thing alone,” … “Women are beautiful creatures, no doubt about that. We marry them, we look after them, we provide for them and we love them, but that does not mean they are the same as us. It is the job of a woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, to bear children and look after them after they’re born. Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that women should be chasing after fancy titles and knowledge. The only knowledge they need is the one we men allow them to have.”

One of his opponents was Sam Winston. From an article in November:

Winston, 57, of Lufkin, said Gohmert has busied himself with self-promotion on television and radio for the past decade. Gohmert has gone beyond ineffectiveness, Winston said, he’s been a detriment to Texas and East Texas.

“Washington D.C. is in gridlock,” Winston said. “It’s a circus up there and he’s one of the main clowns.”

He lost in the Republican primary in March. Why does this happen? Gohmert got 82% of the vote, 96,000 of $116,000. This page says Gohmert spent $367,000 while this page says Simon Winston spent only $56,000. So Winston spent about 13.2% of the money spent on this race and got almost 13.9% of the vote. Not only did Winston spend less, but he was facing Gohmert’s huge name recognition advantage from his decade in office and the “self-promotion” he accused Gohmert of.

Winston’s not an experienced politician. An experienced politician would know to spend almost everything he had on the primary. In such a one-sided district, the primary determines who wins.

My question: Do the people know all the bizarre things Gohmert says? If Winston could get his name in front of people, does he have a chance of winning? How about if he buys ads showing how extreme Gohmert is?

In our system, is Gohmert accountable for what he says and how he votes? He’s not. All that matters is campaign spending. But the real question is, if we did have accountability, would Winston have won?

Let’s find out. Please help us create it. Please add your name to our announcement list.