From Gov. Good Hair to Gov. Hair Care?

Who?

That’s the reaction I invariably get lately when I mention Farouk Shami, the latest contender in the race for the Democratic nomination for Texas Governor. Oddly, I’m usually only talking about this with fellow political junkies, people you’d expect to have caught on by now. I guess with this race, it's hard to keep up.

Then I mention “CHI”, and if it’s a female, their eyes light up. They really love those flat irons and associated haircare accessories. In fact, they seem to dedicate their vote for Governor on the basis of the greatness of this miracle product. After nearly ten years with a Governor Good Hair, will Democrats try to trade him in for a Governor Hair Care?

I don’t even know what a flat iron is, and I certainly don’t know about BioSilk, but they seem to have been the greatest things invented for the American Female since eye shadow. And of course the man behind it all is Farouk Shami: epitome of the American story, self-made man, and…Montgomery County Democrat.

At MoCo Report, we cover Montgomery County Politics, particularly the left side of them. So, it’s a big deal that one of very own local Ds is running for Governor. Many local democratic activists have already signed on to his campaign and I have already received two event invitations from them, one at Mr. Shami’s Woodlands home.

What will be the Shami effect in this primary race? While some may speculate about his viability in a general election showdown, you can't discount someone’s ability to affect a primary when they pledge to spend $10 million of their own money on the campaign.

Other candidates have taken notice. Hank Gilbert tacitly acknowledged Mr. Shami in an email blast yesterday when he stated, “our Party's nomination isn't for sale to the highest bidder.”

Mr. Gilbert has done a great job of communicating what he perceives as Texas' problems and what his proposed solutions are to fix them, an arguably much better job than Tom Schieffer, Kinky Friedman, or Felix Alvarado. So far, Gilbert has set the bar when it comes to the level of activism and number of sound policy proposals. Will Shami meet those standards? Most Democrats haven’t made up their mind yet on this race and I know they’ll listen intently to each candidate with an open mind before doing so. Even if you are already leaning one way, you should listen to what a new candidate has to say.

Well, we don't have to wait long. Mr. Shami is expected to officially announce this Thursday that he will be a candidate for the nomination. He’ll make this announcement while standing in front of one of his facilities, with which he brought 5,000 jobs to the Houston area. It's a great campaign narrative that complements his American story well. But, the burden is on him to tell us what he’ll do to fix the many problems Texas faces. We need to know that a businessman can be trusted to clean up Perry's corruption. We need someone who can further the cause of turning Texas Blue. And we need to know why he'll be a better person to beat Perry or KBH. Most agree that a business success story and a large war chest will not be enough to convince most Texas Democrats. We're looking for the meat.

I'll be there on Thursday and I'm looking forward to hearing what the Farouk Shami vision for Texas is. Follow me on Twitter (austinstout) for live updates from his announcement.