Democrats’ new plan: Turning Texas blue
National Democrats are taking steps to create a large-scale independent group aimed at turning traditionally conservative Texas into a prime electoral battleground, crafting a new initiative to identify and mobilize progressive voters in the rapidly-changing state, strategists familiar with the plans told POLITICO.
The organization, dubbed “Battleground Texas,” plans to engage the state’s rapidly growing Latino population, as well as African-American voters and other Democratic-leaning constituencies that have been underrepresented at the ballot box in recent cycles. Two sources said the contemplated budget would run into the tens of millions of dollars over several years – a project Democrats hope has enough heft to help turn what has long been an electoral pipe dream into reality…
One Democrat close to the planning process said the group intended to bring in “top campaign talent to Texas” for a long-term organizing push. Strategists filed papers with the Texas Ethics Commission to create Battleground Texas earlier this month with that goal in mind.
“It’s going to take a sustained effort and we’re going to have to prove ourselves over time,” the Democrat staid.
Blowback
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clearbluesky is right. We’re too passive and always on defense. It has to stop. We need to go on offense at all levels of government, just like these guys are. And then we need to make the structural reforms to make our gains lasting. Like Scott Walker did when he broke the unions in Wis. Kasich in Ohio failed, and look what happened there.
Iblis on January 24, 2013 at 1:38 PM
I live in the Lone Star State and while I would never say never to Texas going blue(or purple), if/when that happened, the country as a whole will be lost anyway. This is a project that’ll take the Dems at least a decade to pull off and I honestly don’t know if we’ve got that much time left given our current fiscal trajectory.
Doughboy on January 24, 2013 at 1:39 PM
Exactly.
stvnscott on January 24, 2013 at 1:42 PM
I just wish somebody would run against him. And knock this “rising star”, as the media likes to say, off his perch.
Red Creek on January 24, 2013 at 1:47 PM
By the time Texas turns blue – the rest of the south (GA, LA, NC, especially) would already be long gone.
The myth that all legal immigrants want no-strings amnesty for illegals is perpetuated only by those who don’t actually know any immigrants. You know – Limousine Liberals.
CycloneCDB on January 24, 2013 at 1:50 PM
Agreed that the GOP has an image problem but I dispute that Hispanics can’t be natural conservatives. If we seal up the borders NOW and weed out the moochers and criminals that are already here, we’re left with a lot of hard-working Hispanics who just want to make a better life for themselves and their families. That ought to be something the GOP can appeal to; those are conservative values. This party needs to re-tool its image. It is thought of as the part of old rich white guys because that’s all you ever see from them. I’m not an advocate of identity politics any more than the next conservative but it does no good to stand on principle when you’re getting your azz handed to you over and over again. And they need to start making freedom and personal liberty seem like more attractive concepts than dependency on the government. It’s something that needs to be attacked from all sides: We need to take back the schools, our news outlets, the entertainment industry. All of it. Maybe the GOP needs to start mounting these same kinds of campaigns in states like California and New York. Hell, I remember a time when California still went red on occasion and I’m not even that old. These pu$$ies need to learn how to fight back. Until that happens, nothing will ever change, everything will get worse, and yes, Texas will turn blue.
NoLeftTurn on January 24, 2013 at 1:57 PM
True, Clayton Williams was ahead in the polls until his joke using rape as an analogy, then his campaign imploded. Texas was a Democratic state for over 100 years, but most of those Democrats were conservative.
Ward Cleaver on January 24, 2013 at 2:02 PM
Ladies…all we need to do is win 35%-40% of Hispanics and Texas will be red for the next 100 years.
Also if we consider that around 25% of Hispanics are getting married to whites, that 50% of Hispanics are white or the so called “White Hispanic” the GOP can win.
William Eaton on January 24, 2013 at 2:02 PM
When did you transplant?
CorporatePiggy on January 24, 2013 at 2:22 PM
Texas can easily flip blue, and it scares the bejeezus out of my
If TX goes blue, the US is permanently blue and the Republic is over. That’s what’s at stake here.
For every one freedom minded conservative that moves to TX, we get 2 liberal idiot refugees from blue states who promptly come here and vote for the same idiotic policies that ruined their last state
We are getting pinched from blue state migration and massive hispanic immigration
The only prayer is to make inroads with latinos
Amnesty is absolutely NOT the answer and will result in 10-15 million new liberal votes around the US– this is electoral doom for us
It’s going to take a lot of work and effort, but that’s our only hope long term i.e. in the next decade even
thurman on January 24, 2013 at 2:22 PM
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