By Mike Ward
DALLAS — Former El Paso Mayor John Cook, the Texas Democratic Party’s nominee for land commission, courted votes with a song on Saturday.
With his guitar and a cowboy hat, Cook brought delegates to the party’s convention here to their feet with a snappy rendition of the Tom Petty single “I Won’t Back Down,” as the biennial gathering drew to a close.
“You know I won’t back down . . . I’m gonna stand my ground,” he said, as delegates clapped.
In a brief speech before his even-briefer concert, Cook told the convention that “Texas doesn’t need another Bush. We’ve already been Bush-whacked a couple of times.”
In the November general election, Cook faces Fort Worth lawyer George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, grandson to former President George H.W. Bush and nephew of former President George W. Bush.
Next up: Convention Chair Royce West, a Dallas state senator, then tried to sing a Michael Jackson song about change — with a few “something, something, something” until he couldn’t remember the words.
The convention then quickly returned to its business.
