Well to say that it has been busy here in Harris County would be a bit of an understatement. I wanted to give an update of the goings on here in the Greater Houston Area. The Texas primary is less than 60 days away. For those that don’t know, Harris County is large enough, by population, to be the 26th state in the union. This is a majority-minority county with the largest ethnic block being Hispanic.
That hashtag in the title is the unifying theme for 2018 here. Harris County needs to be solid Blue in order to flip the state. There are hundreds of thousands of votes sitting out there that need to be tapped. There have been twice weekly phone banks out of the Party headquarters contacting voters to remind them that there are primaries and getting commitments to vote. Further, the Party has to stay neutral in the contested primaries, is using the uncontested candidates to extend outreach efforts.
There are twenty-nine official Clubs and Orgs under the HCDP banner, with more being formed now. They (we, as I am an officer in one such club) are the backbone of getting people registered to vote and to get them out to vote. Precinct chairs (I’m one of those too) need help in both those activities and the clubs are a way to do this. The Communications committee of the Party is focusing on making sure we are all talking about the same issues like, healthcare, education, immigration, or women’s reproductive rights for example. There are massive data driven efforts underway and the Clubs will be the key part of those efforts.
At the December County Executive Committee, a number of new precinct chairs were sworn in. It was amazing because many of them have been and are active in: Indivisible, Swing Left, Pant Suit Republic, and Our Revolution. The message for activists is clear: this is your Party too, show up and make your voice heard. No, we will all not get everything we want, but to win elections we need to be on the same page. Our small differences are nothing compared to the huge issues the Republicans are bringing to the nation.
So there is so much energy here. Much is focused on Congressional races. Gene Green’s retirement from CD-29 set off a chain of events that had seven candidates sign up for the newly open seat. CD-7 (Culberson) has been a hot race for a year now. CD-2 is open with Ted Poe’s retirement. Do not sleep on that race! The demographics have a high minority component and a high college education component too. It is flipable!
I know that the suburban district of 22 is also heavily contested as is CD-36. Do not sleep on parts of Fort Bend and Brazoria Counties delivering some good news in November.
What that hashtag really means is that Harris County is blue, but there are hundreds of thousands of votes that can be mobilized. It requires a local touch. That is where the neighborhood Clubs come in. But getting those voters out to the polls changes margins. It also requires candidates. We have those!
How do you flip Texas? Turn Harris County sapphire blue. So our focus is here. Get all our voters out. Drive those margins up and see what happens everywhere in Texas. #ItAllStartsHere!