The British liberal running for office in Texas: 'The accent captures attention'

[Judi Lynn]

Adam Gabbatt
@adamgabbatt
Sun 29 Jul 2018 01.00 EDT Last modified on Sun 29 Jul 2018 01.47 EDT


Texas is traditionally portrayed as a fiercely patriotic state. The kind of state that revels in all-American, conservative politicians. On the face, it doesn’t seem the sort of place where a liberal British politician could win office.

But Andrew Morris, a 32-year-old originally from Yorkshire, is bidding to do just that.

Morris, who moved to Texas 10 years ago, is running for a seat in the state’s House of Representatives. He’s retained his northern English accent – if it has developed a slight transatlantic lilt – and he says that makes him a curiosity when he turns up on doorsteps making his progressive pitch for more school funding, more investment in healthcare, and higher public sector wages.

“I think it captures people’s attention a little more because they want to hear what this strange-sounding guy has to say,” Morris says.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/28/andrew-morris-texas-british-politician-immigration

[appalachiablue]

1. He has good ideas from this article, so go for it!

Another area Morris says he is particularly able to speak to is healthcare. He is a proponent of Medicare-for-all – which would provide free healthcare to everyone in the US – and says his first-hand experience of living in countries with universal healthcare helps him allay people’s suspicions.
“There’s no reason why the US, with all of their riches and all of the opportunities that it has, should trail everyone else among the most economically developed countries in the world. Nowhere else do you become bankrupt because of a medical condition,” Morris says.
“I use my experiences in the UK and Australia to show that the level of rhetoric, especially from the conservative side of the political spectrum, isn’t based in any sort of reality.”

[Puzzler]

2. K&R

-Puzzler