What if Kinky Friedman had ran as a Democrat?
The guy who refused to stop saying the word "n***er" every other interview in a statewide run in 2006? As a Democrat? LOL. Perry would get like a quarter of the black vote.
It's crazy he did about as well as he did. He basically ran on edginess alone and didn't have the same kind of socio-cultural grievences that the modern Trumpist right does. Do that today and you'd be lucky to win 1% of the vote.
Kinky Friedman is a unique guy. He's VERY old Texas. Insanely edgy, provocative, doesn't give a s**t what you think about him (I know from personal experience), larger than life, rude (I know from personal experience), smells bad (I know from personal experience), and a damned talented writer/lyricist. Kinky wrote hilarious, incredibly transgressive songs, and wrote hilarious, transgressive comedy books. He helps take care of dogs in the Texas Hill Country. He lived in Kerrville, in the middle of nowhere in the most beautiful part of Texas, in the countryside, and regularly played Austin. He's very, very, very Texas. (More recent arrivals just wouldn't get it, he's been integral in Texas for nearly half a century). This weirdo Jewish cowboy left-wing country music singer who hangs out with his sidekick Lil' Jewford ("So called because he's a Jew and he drives a Ford") is closer to a folklore character than an actual human being. In 2006 he proved it because the REALITY of Kinky couldn't come close to matching the character of Kinky he'd been building since the 70s.
EDIT: Thinking of him as a Jewish Willie Nelson might go a LONG way to clarifying how this is this vaguely lefty guy who is inexplicably adored by ultra-right wing rednecks in rural Texas.