The former pollster and political strategist for then-President George W. Bush‘s 2004 reelection campaign has made his transition to the dark side complete.

Matthew Dowd is running for office as a Democrat for Texas lieutenant governor.

This is my shocked face.

Matthew Dowd, a former strategist for George W. Bush's presidential reelection campaign, announces Democratic bid for Texas lieutenant governor https://t.co/vgJgU34gBm

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) September 29, 2021

From the Texas Tribune:

Matthew Dowd, the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s presidential reelection campaign who later split with the former president publily, is running for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.

Dowd also has worked for Bob Bullock, who in 1994 was the last Democrat elected as Texas lieutenant governor, and faces an uphill battle to unseat Republican Dan Patrick, the state’s second-highest-ranking official who has steered Texas politics into the far-right fringes of the GOP.

In a two-and-a-half minute campaign announcement video, Dowd said GOP politicians have failed the state, zeroing in on Patrick, who he called “cruel and craven” and denounced as a divisive figure who puts his political ambitions over the needs of everyday Texans.

This seems to be the way of the world, to announce your campaign via video rather than mount a press conference. It also guarantees that no one asks you questions, or challenges your reasons for running.

Dowd joins loser Beto O’Rourke O’Dork and Matthew McConaughey in the continued efforts to make Texas Blue; the other reasons are merely academic. In 2018, Dowd made noises about challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz as an Independent, but stepped aside for the Robert Francis O’Rourke skateboard show.

That went well.

Dowd is also the founder of the group “Country Over Party,” created toward the goal to bridge the ideological divide in the U.S. However, the only ideology Dowd has supported of late is the Democrat and Left-wing fringe.

Dowd has been polishing his “leadership” creds for a minute. He took to the platform Medium in May, to talk about how out of step the Texas GOP is with the values of actual Texans, and gave some strategy about how Democrats could win over the state. Dowd has decried the efforts to do an audit in Texas of the 2020 Election, and warned of dangerous election disinformation, while sitting his hindquarters on every liberal and leftist yawnfest — from CNN to MSNBC — spewing this disinformation.

However, Dowd is a strategist by trade, and he obviously smells blood in the water. An August 2021 University of Texas, TX Politics poll showed Lt. Governor Patrick with a 42-percent disapproval rating, over a 33-percent approval rating. With Texas importing lots of new voters from California and other purple states, the GOP stronghold may well be weakening.

Between Dowd and O’Rourke, they plan to use this to their advantage.