What is a Wasted Vote?

An editorial by David Pipkin, State Chairman of the Constitution Party of Texas — October 26, 2026

In voicing our endorsement and support of Jenn Mack for Governor of Texas, we often encounter a variant of the "wasted vote" / "she can't win" / "a write-in candidate can't win" objection. We are happy to answer, because it is the only argument the Uniparty machine has left. It is their final fig leaf.

It is worth stopping to look at what that objection actually is. It is not an argument about her character. It is not an argument about her platform, her record, or her fitness for the office. It is a prediction. The Uniparty machine hands Texans an "election analysis" and calls it a ballot.

Here is what the forecast really is. Somewhere along the way, the citizen bought the lie that his duty in the voting booth is to act as an election prognosticator — to study the projected returns and issue his vote in accordance with them. He does not cast his principles. He casts a guess about his neighbors.

That is the psy-op, and it is run by the Uniparty machine: "Do not vote your values and your principles. Vote based on what we have convinced you the results will be." The machine never has to defeat your principles. It only has to keep them out of the booth.

And make no mistake — we dispute the arithmetic itself. It counts a people who have not yet voted, and it counts on them voting the forecast. If Texans did their duty instead of predicting each other, the returns would surprise this state. The machine knows it. That is why the forecast must be renewed every single day until the polls close.

On Election Day, the prediction and the ballot collapse into the same thing. The poll becomes self-fulfilling. That is not democracy. That is a racetrack, and the house owns both horses.

Those of us voting for Jenn Mack are voting for a true Texas leader — a patriot who is faithful to the Constitution. That is the whole of the reasoning.

She absolutely could win. It depends upon who shows up to vote — which is to say, it depends on no forecast at all.

The one place in this state the future is not a prediction is the write-in line. No poll can see it. It does not exist until a Texan makes it exist.

To those who endorse the Uniparty with their votes, we say: "May your red or blue shackles rest easily upon your ankles." Notice what the Uniparty machine never tells them: it makes no difference if they endorse the R or the D because they support voting for traitors, or if they do so as a coward. Either way, a vote for the uniparty is Consent.

The Uniparty machine is content with both. It wrote its victory into either outcome before a single vote was cast.

The Uniparty machine has implemented a long line of consent devices inflicted upon the People. The result is a wall the Uniparty has built between the People and their government. It is the sum of these devices, and this "wasted vote / a write-in candidate can't win" propaganda is nothing more than a marketing ploy to continue to drive consent for the wall.

The Uniparty packaged that wall as convenience, protection, and fairness, and the People accepted it as packaged. The marketing never stopped. It simply added another campaign. This campaign is a forecast: everyone else is voting for the labels, so they must do so as well.

This is how they own the vote.

One thing remains that the Uniparty machine cannot predict, cannot purchase, and cannot pre-count: the duty of a free citizen. Our opinions of who will or won't win the election have absolutely zero bearing upon our duty as citizens of Texas to our Constitution. The founders gave us elections as a trust, not a wager. A man does not poll his neighbors to learn whether to keep his oath.

Early voting runs through October 30. Election Day is November 3.

Texans strike the first blow when they write in Jenn Mack for Governor of Texas.