Living in Texas, I'm exhausted with how many election cycles we've been led to believe that Texas is purple. It deepens the disappointment every time we come up short, even though we're talking of defeating the likes of Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. We've never come close enough.
That's probably why I have the same jaded view of Florida.
Living in Texas, I'm exhausted with how many election cycles we've been led to believe that Texas is purple. It deepens the disappointment every time we come up short, even though we're talking of defeating the likes of Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. We've never come close enough.
That's probably why I have the same jaded view of Florida.
I'm not saying we shouldn't keep working and trying to make it happen, I'm just saying that activists and pundits should stop blowing smoke up our you=know-whats. We're adults, treat us like that by leveling with us - let us know exactly what we're up against and what we can do to keep chipping away at it....
That's pretty much it. Our best shot was in 18 and we didn't quite get there. I love Beto but making gun restrictions part of your platform is suicide in Texas, and even before the El Paso mass shooting he wasn't too shy about his thoughts on the topic.
This year? Eh, I'd like to dream but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. I'll just do my part and then show up and vote.
Beto really drifted left after the 2018 race. Thought he was still fairly centrist at least in temperament during the senate race. Agree it is a suicide mission calling for people’s guns in TX.
TX has had so much population growth even since 2018. It's hard to say what the political mix of the newly-arrived eligible voters is (knowing that some growth is from births and from international non-citizen immigration). And most of that growth is in the large metro areas of the Triangle. Most of the large, high-growth suburban counties of the big metros (Montgomery County being the notable exception) have trended purple or even blue.
Beto was a flawed candidate, but he did come awfully close to Cruz in 2018 (Cruz is also a flawed candidate, obviously). The Texas Democratic party has done a really poor job of recruiting actually good candidates in recent years, and the national Democratic Party never seems to bring the right messaging to Texas in support of those that are running. The early pro-green messaging from that the Biden administration brought to Texas (that "green jobs" would somehow more than make up for the quantities and wage levels of oil industry jobs) was profoundly tin-eared. To sum up, a fair bit of poor Democratic performance in TX has been due to the Democrats themselves, unable to get their act together and be smart. Maybe the Allred campaign is doing a better job this time.
All that said, make no mistake, the elected Republican leaders in TX are only concerned about winning their primaries and answering to their primary voters. And those voters desire, and honestly demand, that those leaders do whatever is necessary to ensure that Trump and Cruz win TX in 2024. If it does get close (let alone look like the Democrats are winning either race), the leaders will do whatever is necessary to get the "correct" outcome.
I’ve spent the last 2 years away from Texas (after 48 years in the state). Upon reflection, I think it will be damn near impossible for progress in the state until there is some type of national voting rights bill. Make it easier to vote in Houston/Dallas/San Antonio and you get a chance to flip more statewide races. It was always so hard to vote in Houston. Always a minimum of an hour wait. Limited early voting locations. I hear it’s gotten even worse.
Living in Texas, I'm exhausted with how many election cycles we've been led to believe that Texas is purple. It deepens the disappointment every time we come up short, even though we're talking of defeating the likes of Ted Cruz and Gov. Greg Abbott. We've never come close enough.
That's probably why I have the same jaded view of Florida.
I'm not saying we shouldn't keep working and trying to make it happen, I'm just saying that activists and pundits should stop blowing smoke up our you=know-whats. We're adults, treat us like that by leveling with us - let us know exactly what we're up against and what we can do to keep chipping away at it....
That's pretty much it. Our best shot was in 18 and we didn't quite get there. I love Beto but making gun restrictions part of your platform is suicide in Texas, and even before the El Paso mass shooting he wasn't too shy about his thoughts on the topic.
This year? Eh, I'd like to dream but I'm not gonna get my hopes up. I'll just do my part and then show up and vote.
Beto really drifted left after the 2018 race. Thought he was still fairly centrist at least in temperament during the senate race. Agree it is a suicide mission calling for people’s guns in TX.
TX has had so much population growth even since 2018. It's hard to say what the political mix of the newly-arrived eligible voters is (knowing that some growth is from births and from international non-citizen immigration). And most of that growth is in the large metro areas of the Triangle. Most of the large, high-growth suburban counties of the big metros (Montgomery County being the notable exception) have trended purple or even blue.
Beto was a flawed candidate, but he did come awfully close to Cruz in 2018 (Cruz is also a flawed candidate, obviously). The Texas Democratic party has done a really poor job of recruiting actually good candidates in recent years, and the national Democratic Party never seems to bring the right messaging to Texas in support of those that are running. The early pro-green messaging from that the Biden administration brought to Texas (that "green jobs" would somehow more than make up for the quantities and wage levels of oil industry jobs) was profoundly tin-eared. To sum up, a fair bit of poor Democratic performance in TX has been due to the Democrats themselves, unable to get their act together and be smart. Maybe the Allred campaign is doing a better job this time.
All that said, make no mistake, the elected Republican leaders in TX are only concerned about winning their primaries and answering to their primary voters. And those voters desire, and honestly demand, that those leaders do whatever is necessary to ensure that Trump and Cruz win TX in 2024. If it does get close (let alone look like the Democrats are winning either race), the leaders will do whatever is necessary to get the "correct" outcome.
I’ve spent the last 2 years away from Texas (after 48 years in the state). Upon reflection, I think it will be damn near impossible for progress in the state until there is some type of national voting rights bill. Make it easier to vote in Houston/Dallas/San Antonio and you get a chance to flip more statewide races. It was always so hard to vote in Houston. Always a minimum of an hour wait. Limited early voting locations. I hear it’s gotten even worse.