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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Sun Mar 3, 2019, 09:32 AM Mar 2019

Texas GOP races to shore up the suburbs for 2020


The state party is placing organizers in big metro areas early to bolster newly competitive districts.

By RENUKA RAYASAM 03/03/2019 07:08 AM EST

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans barely escaped a colossal defeat last year. Now the party is scrambling to avoid a repeat in 2020.

Facing a rapidly changing voter base, anti-Trump fervor and a more motivated Democratic Party, the state GOP is moving earlier than ever to prepare after watching two House members lose in 2018 and another half-dozen win by fewer than 5 points.

The party has set new fundraising goals and placed field staffers in Dallas and Fort Worth nine months earlier than in the last election cycle to facilitate more engagement with voters, with plans to expand the early hiring to other major metro areas to stanch bleeding Republican support in the suburbs.

"We are taking seriously our need to earn every vote in Texas," said James Dickey, chairman of the Texas Republican Party. And donors "are also taking it much more seriously when I tell them how desperately I need them to participate or become a supporter of the party," Dickey added.

The state GOP will be adding organizers in Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and even traditionally Democratic El Paso to its early hires. Those metro areas overlap with the districts of the six House Republicans who won narrowly in 2018: Reps. Michael McCaul, Chip Roy, Pete Olson, Will Hurd, Kenny Marchant, and John Carter.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/03/texas-gop-races-2020-1202205
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beachbum bob

(10,437 posts)
2. democrats learned an active organization in Texas can overcome gerrymandering, this is the case
Sun Mar 3, 2019, 09:42 AM
Mar 2019

everywhere, especially in suburbia where the GOP has little to offer educated people, especially women. The GOP is in full panic mode all over america.

with democratic anger not going away at all and the rising on new voters flocking to the democratic party.

Gothmog

(144,005 posts)
3. This part of the article makes me smile
Sun Mar 3, 2019, 02:13 PM
Mar 2019

From article cited in the OP

House Republicans like Olson, who defeated Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni by fewer than 14,000 votes in a fast-changing slice of the Houston suburbs last year, say they have gotten the message too. Campaigns are mirroring the state party’s early staffing,

“We plan on it being more a retail race,” said Melissa Kelly, Olson’s chief of staff, who added that Olson plans on being even more active in the diversifying community, attending events like Chinese New Year and Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

“He’s definitely preparing for it to be a more challenging environment,” Kelly said.

Olson’s race is one of six congressional races in Texas that the national Democrats already are targeting in 2020. With the exception of Hurd’s district, which takes in a massive swath of West Texas along the Mexican border, all are contained in fast-growing, rapidly diversifying suburban districts outside cities like Austin, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth.
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