Three steps: How the Dems plan to make Texas a battleground state by 2016
In 2008, 35 percent of Texan Hispanics voted for the GOP. No exit polls were taken in Texas in 2012, but the national Hispanic GOP vote was only 27 percent — four points lower than the national Hispanic GOP vote in 2008. So, going off of limited data, and giving the GOP the benefit of the doubt, the Democrats would need to swing Texan Hispanic voters their way by between four and eight points.
And while Republicans like Mr. Norquist and Texas Gov. Rick Perry say that the Democrat’s goal is a pipe dream because of the Texas GOP’s differences from the national GOP, they would be well served by studying the case of former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who, despite a roundly liberal record on abortion and other social issues, was painted as part of a national, socially conservative machine by 2012 Democrats. Then-candidate Elizabeth Warren didn’t focus attacks on Mr. Brown for his quotes regarding abortion, for example — she instead ran ads attacking former Missouri Rep. Todd Akin’s quotes on abortion.
In the next Texas election, Texas Republicans should not expect to be spared attack ads highlighting Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s harsher immigration policies.
By making races national when convenient, both parties have discovered a winning strategy — and one that can overwhelm a single state’s party apparatus.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
1. Amnesty
2. Amnesty
3. Amnesty
fogw on February 27, 2013 at 3:05 PM
I have a counter plan.
Run red…if you are a republican and your blue governor ruins your state run to texas and start over.
perhaps in more ways than one.
harlekwin15 on February 27, 2013 at 3:06 PM
Not happening. We already have a very large Latino population here in Texas, yet the GOP still dominates in state and local elections(aside from metropolitan areas which could be said for almost every place in the country). Why is that? Because fiscal conservatism and limited government are embedded in our culture. We’re proud of the lack of a state income tax. We want our borders secure. We’re not nanny staters who like being told what we can eat or drink. If the Dems can someone change that mentality amongst Texan voters, more power to them. But something tells me trying to do that during a 2nd Obama term is probably not gonna be that easy of a task.
Doughboy on February 27, 2013 at 3:06 PM
Idiocy is here
The Latinos in TX/NM and a few other places are many from Spain, many generations in the US (sure they have the others too, illegals galore)…the author misses so much.
Let the dems have wet dreams and spend a lot…in pursuit of hot air bolloons.
Schadenfreude on February 27, 2013 at 3:07 PM
So the hispanics are going to rule this country now with their “votes?” Interesting.
NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:08 PM
Yep, yep. I live in california and I know I won’t in 2016. Strongly leaning towards taking my brother to texas & voting conservative.
blockchords on February 27, 2013 at 3:11 PM
That is my exact plan. I plan on relocating to Texas as soon as I can but right now I would need to win the lottery to accomplish that. But when the time is right, I am outta here. I have a cousin in Texas who relocated a number of years ago due to her job moving…she loves, loves, loves it. I don’t like the heat she tells me about, but I like Jersey even less than that. I simply cannot afford to retire in this godforsaken state.
NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:13 PM
Where’s your cousin live? The heat and humidity are bad during the summer and early fall, but that’s why God invented air conditioning.
Doughboy on February 27, 2013 at 3:16 PM
Close the thread. Nothing more need be said!
Doomberg on February 27, 2013 at 3:18 PM
She lives in Spring, TX, west of Houston, I believe it is. She says they start their air conditioning in early April. Can’t go outside in the summertime. I’m not a big fan of air conditioning, however, I can learn. Better than dealing with these northeast liberal governments. I can’t take much more.
NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:20 PM
I live in Katy which is southwest of Spring(which is north of H-Town). It’s all part of the Greater Houston area.
Mid-to-late March is probably when we’ll turn on our ACs this year. As for the summertime, it’s bad, but you can still go outside. Until last year I would be out for an hour or two every Sunday in the heat doing the yard and I never had any problems. I only stopped cuz we have a kid now and there’s too much stuff going on during the weekends.
Doughboy on February 27, 2013 at 3:26 PM
I love all the comparisons to other states while ignoring the realities here in Texas. Bottom line, unless every white voter in Texas drops dead between now and 2016, it’s.not.going.to.happen.
Erich66 on February 27, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Rubio is the democrats’ key to the future – Rubio wants Texas to go blue, and he wants democrats to win in 2016 – this is why he is working with obama to ram through amnesty for illegals.
Pork-Chop on February 27, 2013 at 3:39 PM
Birthright citizenship is what sealed Texas’s fate. It is the primary reason for the growing Hispanic vote and it is something that is not talked about in all the immigration reform debates.
Doester on February 27, 2013 at 3:48 PM
With the money I’ll probably save I’ll be able to have a pool for the summer !! LOL.
Plus I always liked cowboys LOL.
NJ Red on February 27, 2013 at 3:55 PM
Step 1: call up nuclear strikes on Collin, Tarrant, and Fort Bend counties.
Step 2: establish polling locations in Mexican border towns.
Step 3: Allow Austin reside ballots to be counted 10 times.
About the only way.
michaelo on February 27, 2013 at 3:58 PM
Nicholas Bedford,
My my my,
How big a fool are you and these RINO’s of Hot Air?
1. To win aginst any Democrat or RINO in Texas the best way would be to have Jan Brewer at every town hall meeting you have, together with Ted Cruz to make the point clear.
2. You and the RINO’s of Hot Air seem to think you have an inside the RINO operations knowledge that your Amnesty and your open borders thing is real aka a done deal..
NOT
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 27, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Of some note:
We Texans paid for all these School Buses, the City transit bus systems, hell even the Greyhound people will hire out if needed.
The illegal operations of the “Mexican Cartel” useful bus system of bad buses, bad tires, bad drivers, bad condition, bad safety records, bad bad aka Mexican Bus lines will find that once we understand the U.S. Goverment plans to throw we Texans under these Mexican Buses,,well “Make Our Days”.
The Mexican border is not more than a 14 or so hour trip from any point in Texas.
Just piss us off and we will give the rest of the country a lesson in taking care of bussiness.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 27, 2013 at 4:19 PM
Isn’t Rick Perry on his third term? Seriously, being governor might be his last job until he retires. Yet the donkeys are thinking they’ll flip the state that re-elects him?
ROTFL.
platypus on February 27, 2013 at 4:23 PM
If the U.S. Goverment, Executive Branch, Appointed Leaders of the D.C. operations, the Judical, the Senate, the House, and even the U.S. Army make the choice of by illegal means make the illegals “legal”, then we here in Texas understand well what to do when faced with a crime aka a criminal unconstitutional illegal operation and will deal with it as any crime should be.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 27, 2013 at 4:24 PM
Texas will be one of the states that makes that final stand against tyranny.
Book it.
Move there ASAP.
Why? Because…
The GOP will betray you
True_King on February 27, 2013 at 4:25 PM
My wife is from Tom’s River and has adjusted well to the climate here. In the Dallas area, we don’t have to turn on the A/C until late April or early May. We turn it off in late September or early October.
Odysseus on February 27, 2013 at 4:25 PM
As i’ve said in other threads about this here at HA, anyone who discounts Texas turning blue is whistling past the graveyard. Dems first started making a push for Texas after the ’00 election, they thought Bush stole it so they were determined to make his home state of Texas blue.
R’s may still be winning on the state level, but the Texas lege has been close to 50/50 or only a slight R advantage for years, in other words that big Romney win over Obama may look good but once you dig down you see support for R’s is a mile wide and an inch deep. And here’s the latest “turn Texas blue” post from a local lib blog, of which they do one almost every week or so.
clearbluesky on February 27, 2013 at 4:29 PM
Yeah right.
Ward Cleaver on February 27, 2013 at 4:30 PM
Houston is West Louisiana, Dallas and San Antonio/Austin are hot and dry in the summer
phreshone on February 27, 2013 at 4:31 PM
Eh, i live in Dallas and love the summers here, 90 overnight and 105 during the day, my kinda weather.
clearbluesky on February 27, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Dallas, Harris (Houston), and Bexar (San Antonio) counties are solidly blue, and Tarrant (Fort Worth) is trending that way, thanks to lefty Hispanics, African Americans, and hipster douchebags, but a lot of the rest of Texas is still red.
Ward Cleaver on February 27, 2013 at 4:33 PM
Right, but that’s my point, look at states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Dems win there by getting huge margins in the blue cities that overwhelm the red rural areas. Texas may not be there yet, but that’s where it’s headed.
clearbluesky on February 27, 2013 at 4:39 PM
I’m not too worried about Ft Worth btw, it may not be as red as it once was but i don’t think it’ll ever go blue.
clearbluesky on February 27, 2013 at 4:40 PM
Not only is he in his third term, but he won easily against Bill White who was a fairly popular mayor in H-Town. So it’s not like the Dems ran a patsy against him.
Doughboy on February 27, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Ward Cleaver,
Those areas in fact only go that way because the Republicans do not turn out due to the RINO’s pissing them off time after time.
Take a look at what Ted Cruz did.
If the Republicans run real conservatives and the voters turn out the Democrats do not stand a chance.
Now thing is I had a reason to be in the Dallas area last week to do some buss..
Saw a dam City of Plano Texas “Toyota highbreed electric Car” brand new one, on the side of the thing,
“Compost Supertendant City of Plano.”
That tells me even conservative areas of the metro plex got some home work to do.
APACHEWHOKNOWS on February 27, 2013 at 5:29 PM
Not by 2016, but Texas is doomed, which means we all are.
“According to Steve Murdock, a demographer with the Hobby Center for the Study of Texas at Rice University and a former director of the U.S. Census Bureau, the White American population is aging, while minority populations remain relatively young. As of 2011, according to Murdock, two out of three children in Texas are not non-Hispanic Whites. Murdock also predicted that, between 2000 and 2040 (assuming that the net migration rate will equal half that of 1990-2000), Hispanic public school enrollment will increase by 213 percent, while non-Hispanic white enrollment will decrease by 15 percent.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Texas
Golden Boy on February 27, 2013 at 5:47 PM
In 2010, the TX lege went 67/33 R. Then we redisticted. The mix did not change much in 2012.
Odysseus on February 27, 2013 at 5:55 PM
I agree that we must abolish Birthright citizenship. Unless the parents are in the country legally AND are pursuing a path to US citizenship then any offspring they have while here should get the citizenship of the parent’s country.
No tourism citizenship, no illegals citizenship. Only for citizens and to be gracious I’ll concede that if you are in the process of trying for US citizenship for yourself then your child should piggyback onto your application so that you will all become citizens together.
That one thing would go a long way toward fixing our broken immigration system. Say goodbye to anchor babies and all the welfare benefits they receive for their illegal parents. Without the welfare, most of them would go home.
mrsmwp on February 27, 2013 at 6:06 PM
Politics is downstream from culture.
If the deformation of education continues, Texas will go blue too.
http://dailycaller.com/2013/02/26/texas-public-school-students-don-burqas-learn-that-muslim-terrorists-are-freedom-fighters/
AesopFan on February 28, 2013 at 12:14 AM