Don’t give up on Texas, Democrats
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Democrats have been “on the verge” of winning statewide in Texas for several election cycles. “Democrats have fantasized about turning Texas blue for a long time. And Hillary Clinton sees a slight opportunity to do that,” NPR reported in October 2016. “Some recent polls show the race between Clinton and Donald Trump there in single digits. A new ad from the Clinton campaign running in Texas touts her endorsement from the Dallas Morning News, which hasn’t picked a Democrat for president in more than 70 years.”
Clinton did better than President Barack Obama, who lost by nearly 16 points in 2012; she still lost by nine points. Beto O’Rourke came even closer in his 2018 race against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), losing by less than three points. Joe Biden lost by less than six in 2020.
Democratic hopes that demography would deliver Texas have not been wrong, but perhaps just premature.
But Republicans now seem poised to accomplish what Democrats have not been able to do: The GOP has alienated sufficient numbers of voters outside their hardcore base to put the state in play in 2022 in gubernatorial and congressional contests and beyond.
A new Quinnipiac poll suggests Republicans’ radicalism has put them at odds with a majority of Texas voters.
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