Texas Democrat Sam Eppler Says People Are Replacing Campaign Signs With Dog Poop

Claims by candidates that someone in their opposition's camp is stealing yard signs arise every election. At the Observer, we generally ignore these stories for the simple reason that nobody much cares. "Oh, hell, that again," we say, and move onto other stories that might actually matter in politics. You know, like the latest stupid or vicious tweet from some unhinged candidate. Not that we're naming names.

But, Sam Eppler, the Democrat looking to unseat GOP Rep. Beth Van Duyne in District 24 in a race not drawing much press attention, offered up a twist on this old story last week that we can't ignore.

"I’m shocked. I was talking to some of my supporters and learned that someone is going around stealing our campaign’s yard signs," Eppler said in a campaign appeal that arrived in our inbox. "Even worse, two of our supporters had dog poop left on their front porch.

"While I’m outraged, I know we just have to keep going. I refuse to sink to this level of intimidation and vandalism."

We had a scoop (sorry). Dog poo on doorsteps is now part of the campaign discourse in congressional elections. Three cheers for democracy!

To be fair, we only have Eppler's word that these non-flaming fudge bombs were actually delivered. We haven't seen the poop ourselves and don't really care to look. And we don't believe for one minute that Van Duyne or her campaign has anything to do with the sign-stealing and shit delivery, even if it took place. There are enough freelance idiots roaming the landscape that this easily might have happened without involving a sitting member of Congress.

Besides, Van Duyne is among the leading Donald Trump-loving MAGA fans in North Texas and chair of the Republican Victory Committee in Texas. There's really no need for her to sink any lower than that. (We did reach out to Van Duyne to see if she had any comment for us. We didn't hear back. Can't imagine why not. We try to be fair-ish.)

So, why mention it then? Well, partly because we're, um, young at heart and incapable of not writing a story about dog poop vandalism in politics. (Well played, Eppler.)  Also, as people who read and write for a living, we love the power of a good metaphor, and this one is just so on the nose. It is, in the greater poetic sense, true, even if it isn't.

Finally, considering the world we live in, we think that, yeah, that shit probably happened. Poop on doorsteps? Quelle surprise.

We called up Eppler to see how he was recovering from this travesty. Turns out, he's handling it pretty well, seeing as we had to remind him what we were talking about.

"I didn't see it with my own eyes, but people tell me that's what happened," Eppler said when we pointed out that his campaign sent out the appeal for money for more signs. The sign thefts, he said, are definitely a problem for him, Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred and the Kamala Harris campaign.

Regardless, Eppler seemed in good spirits considering he's a Democrat running in Texas.

"We raised over a million dollars and there's only two [congressional] races in Texas that have done that," he said. While eyes are focused Allred's campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, "We're just kind of sneaking in under the radar.

"... I'm really optimistic. This is the No. 1 college-educated district in Texas ... This is both the richest and most educated, and it doesn't like Trump, so that's why I ran, because we have a Marjorie Taylor Greene-type incumbent."

District 24 stretches from University Park to Keller, taking in Southlake and Coppell. It has a sizable population of college-educated, suburban women who tend to lean Democratic, especially in an election where reproductive rights are a key issue, and Van Duyne is firmly in the no-choice camp. Internal polling done by Eppler's campaign in September suggested the race was tied 46–46%.

"They don't like their reproductive health care in the hands of their crazy far right congresswoman or their senator," said Eppler, who described Van Duyne, an election denier after Trump's 2020 defeat, as a mashup of far-far-so-fucking-far right Georgia Rep. Greene and equally far-right Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.

"But she's our problem. Texas's problem," he said.