By Thomas Warren III, Editor-in-Chief

Josh Winegarner’s campaign seems to think that the issue voters care most about in Texas’ 13th District is geography and more specifically which cities are included in the Texas Panhandle. I believe instead, he should be talking about an issue which is much more important in this race.

Over the past several days, former lobbyist Josh Winegarner’s U.S. House campaign has turned negative, with attacks being thrown at his runoff opponent, Ronny Jackson, on a variety of issues. In past editorials, I have covered his attacks on Jackson’s military service (which Winegarner has yet to publicly apologize for) and several other issues. Some of Winegarner’s attacks are just useless to talk about because they make no difference one way or the other, but an attack launched on Friday was too good to pass up.

In a post to social media, Winegarner’s campaign used a meme from the landmark Coen Brothers’ comedy The Big Lebowski to attack Jackson for his statements that Levelland is part of the Texas Panhandle. This attack is just laughable and has no real purpose in this race other than to distract from the issues. While this meme may make for a nice invoice from a political consultant, it does nothing to further the issues in this contest or to open a dialogue about the issues which matter to local voters.

Winegarner’s entire campaign so far has been based around dividing voters along the lines of “us versus them,” with the “us” being “one of our own” and “them” being everyone else. The Amarillo versus the world mentality being pushed by the Winegarner campaign, which has caused Winegarner to go as far as to accuse Jackson of being a carpetbagger for being gone from the 13th District while serving in the U.S. Navy, is a weak attempt by the Winegarner campaign to save the sinking ship that is his political ambitions. The attacks have been shameful, but at this point, shameful is all Winegarner and his team of political consultants have left in hopes of keeping the Amarillo establishment in power.

Since Mr. Winegarner wants to use memes to start social media battles instead of discussing the issues which matter to voters, I thought maybe the problem is that he does not know where to start in discussing the issues. In that case, I wanted to give him a suggestion, which I think would be a great option to open the door of communication between the ex-lobbyist and the voters he wants to represent.

Mr. Winegarner should explain his lobbying record.

He should explain why he lobbied against the Trump Administration on country of origin labeling and why he lobbied to keep NAFTA. I know he has given weak answers full of politico spin to explain why he did not really oppose the Trump Administration when he was lobbying against the President’s priorities. In my opinion, Mr. Winegarner did not adequately explain his record at all and voters are still waiting for a real explanation. But for a real explanation to voters, he should leave the spin at home and explain why he lobbied the way he did on those issues.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask of a person who wants to be our Congressman.

So, perhaps Mr. Winegarner and his team can use their energy they have been expending making memes to explain his record and why he is still the candidate who will support President Trump when he did not do so as a lobbyist.

My guess is we will be waiting for that for a long, long time.