O'Rourke: What we've learned in Texas [View all]

[TexasTowelie]

I have spent the last week calling around the state to listen to voters, candidates and organizers. There are many more calls to make, but a few things are coming into focus.

First, we should remember that we protected 11 of the 12 State House seats that we won in 2018. Those were historically Republican districts, and it was no small feat to stave off the millions of dollars spent to retake them. Likewise for our two congressional pickups from 2018. Colin Allred and Lizzie Fletcher are both returning to the U.S. House. We also saw Joe Biden improve nearly 4 points over Hillary Clinton’s performance from 2016. That was the best showing by a Democratic nominee in Texas in 24 years.

However, we lost every challenger Congressional race and every challenger State House race except for one. And we didn’t come nearly close enough to winning statewide — Presidential, Senate or otherwise. It’s important that we understand why, so that we can do much better next time.

Some thoughts based on conversations from this week:

The asymmetrical advantage that Trump and the GOP had this cycle in Texas is far more powerful than many of us understood. And I think it begins to explain Republicans’ incredible performance on Tuesday night.

Read more: https://riograndeguardian.com/orourke-what-weve-learned-in-texas/