“We are quite serious about putting [Texas] in play,” Jenn Ridder, the campaign’s national states director, told CBS News. “Increasingly we are seeing polls that show that there is real opportunity there for us.”

The CBS News Battleground Tracker in mid-July showed Biden just one point behind President Trump.

Six Texas Democratic operatives have already been hired, led by state director Rebecca Acuña, who was raised in Laredo and has worked in various roles in state and congressional politics…

“Joe Biden is also going to win Texas in the general election for three reasons,” Texas Congressman Filemon Vela, an early Biden endorser, told CBS News, “First, Donald Trump and Governor Abbott have made tactical decisions in their COVID response that is now killing Texans en masse. Second, Biden will defeat Trump in the Texas suburbs. Finally, from a historical perspective, Biden will outperform past Democratic candidates in the rural counties.”