One of the things that I’ve been able to hang on to following the election was the decisive nature of Harris County’s Democratic turnout. Houston didn’t have a problem.
Ending a streak of thin electoral margins, Harris County — the biggest battleground in ruby red Texas with a population larger than 25 other states — turned solidly blue on Tuesday with the largest presidential margin of victory in more than a decade.
The blue wave was apparent up and down the ballot on a banner night for the county's Democrats.
They swept up every single countywide seat, including the district attorney and sheriff’s offices. They flipped a Texas House district in Pasadena. And with a presidential fight at the top of the ticket, Democrats shored up their lead in the fight for the typically purple county with Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump by more than 160,000 votes — up from the 971 votes with which Obama took the county in 2012.
The article clearly shows the flat nature of GOP vote growth since 2004. Hillary Clinton broke the 700,000 ballots line on Tuesday. Harris County is only growing more diverse. Whites as a percentage of population fell from 33.% to 31% between 2010 and 2015. Hispanics now make up 42% of the population, Blacks 19.6%, and Asians 7.2%.
Now Harris County only turned out 1.33 million of 2.18 million voters. The case could be made that the GOP has maxed out its base here, the Democrats have lots of room to grow. Again from the Tribune article:
In emails to supporters, prominent local conservatives called it “the worst defeat for Republicans” in the 71-year history of the county’s Republican party. Citing losses in Dallas and Houston, Abbott in a Thursday email to supporters said "the threats to the Lone Star State remain very real." And discussing a need to focus on down-ballot races after tough losses, Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, whose son lost his judgeship in Harris, said Republicans must continue reaching out to Hispanic voters.
Given the nature of the GOP’s rhetoric, I think they will have a tough sell to Hispanic voters. Now, there is real work to be done before 2018. I’m a precinct chair and belong to a few organizations here. We need to have a goal of increasing Democratic turnout by another 120,000 votes. Conversations with several candidates made it clear that there was a lack of coordination with the County Party. These things need to change starting next year.
To have a Blue Texas, Harris County must be carried by over 300,000 votes. Midterm turnout needs to be planned now to attack Ted Cruz’s seat and get rid of Greg Abbott. Anger at this election result needs to be turned into action. There are several local issues that can be turned to Democrats advantage.
Turning Texas Blue starts with a stronger Democratic victory in Harris County. I, for one, am going to fight for it. The GOP margin of victory was cut by half a million votes. We need to get another 700,000 votes to win in 2020, but 2018 needs to be the stepping stone. Fighting for Texas must be a national Democratic priority and it starts in Harris County.