What will it take for the Democratic Party to be competitive in Texas?

[TexasTowelie]

After a grueling 2020 presidential campaign and days of uncertainty about who won, Democrats could finally breathe a sigh of relief when Joe Biden was announced winner last November.

But that relief was especially short-lived for Democrats who followed election outcomes in Texas. Higher-than-expected numbers of voters in traditionally Democratic Texas border counties voted for Donald Trump. That outcome surprised some Democrats, and dampened their post-election glee.

Then the questions began to fly: Should Democrats have done more on-the-ground campaigning? Should Biden have visited South Texas? Were the votes of people of color being taken for granted?

Now, almost a year later, the question is, what does the Democratic Party need to do to be competitive in Texas? In a recent article in The New York Times, columnist Ezra Klein looked into data scientist David Shor's theory that "Democrats are on the edge of an electoral abyss."

Read more: https://www.kut.org/texasstandard/2021-10-13/what-will-it-take-for-the-democratic-party-to-be-competitive-in-texas

[elleng]

1. Ann Richards

[LeftInTX]

10. Unfortunately, she lost to W

[SoCalDavidS]

2. Lloyd Bentsen nt

[bottomofthehill]

3. 5 more years of covid

With no masks and few vaccinations

[Shell_Seas]

5. Nope. We're flipping in 2022.

[jimfields33]

6. State house?

[Shell_Seas]

4. This is a stupid question. (No offense)

Democrats outnumber Republicans. If we show up, we win.

[Paladin]

7. So, help us out here.

How do we cause enough Democrats to show up and allow us to prevail over the Republicans? Because---and I know this is a stupidly-obvious point---it hasn't been happening, lately.

[Shell_Seas]

9. A lot of this has to do with the rapid change in demographics and the growing number of grassroots..

organizations on the ground now. Powered by People, Move Texas, and Jolt Action just to name a few are all mobilized and registering voters. These are all newer-ish organizations.

In 2014, the only grassroots organization we had was Battleground Texas. (They're still around, too)

Between 2020 and 2022, 1.9 million Texans turn 18, the majority of which are BIPOC.

Over the last decade, 95% of the population growth in Texas was from people of color. In fact, both white people and rural Texas had a population loss.

In every election over the last decade, Democrats made much larger gains than Republicans. Consistently. Every election.

Plus, there's talk of ousting the party chair, I don't know when that election is.

We have a lot of good things on our side.

[Javaman]

8. it would take half the repukes to die, retire or quit.

beyond that, they have a lock on power

I don't call texas the only fascist state in the union for nothing.