Six years ago I wrote a diary called, “Texas:How the Dems got to this point” and it hit the Community Spotlight. I argued that the Texas Democratic Party received the equivalence of the NCAA Death Penalty. But I concluded with this:
Winning creates more winning and the Republicans here take winning here for granted. However, 3.5 million Democratic votes were cast in 2008. Julian Castro had a starring role in this year's DNC. Maybe there can be momentum in making Texas swing. He might be able to pull resources into the state to be able to fight for a cycle. But a series of bad news (and choices) and the rise of W. deeply hurt the Dems in Texas. So we all wait for something to change the dynamic and drive the demographic transformation of Texas into a political change. But as I said, it is like starting all over. However, I know one day Texas will come out of the tunnel and back a Democrat for President.
That something happened in 2018 and his name is Beto O’Rourke. No he didn’t win, but he earned 4 million votes from Texans in a midterm. Hillary lost Texas by 9 points which was an improvement over Romney’s 16 point win over President Obama in 2012. O’Rourke lost to Cruz by less than 3 points. (Just for reference, the total votes cast in the 2014 Senate race between John Cornyn and David Alameel was 4.6 million.)
Beto O’Rourke energized Texas Democrats in ways we haven’t been since Ann Richards. Kos wrote last week about the major changes to the Texas Judiciary thanks to Democratic turnout. I wrote about the sweep in Harris County on election night.
Yes, we worked our asses off in Harris County, Dallas, Travis, and so many other counties, but Beto planted the flag and had resources out there competing with the Republican message. Texas was a political battleground and while the top of the State is still in GOP hands, they saw seismic shifts in enough places to be very worried.
The real reason I’m writing this is because of lots of push-back on Twitter against O’Rourke. They aren’t Texans and have no idea how demoralized Texas Democrats had become. We’re a donor state instead of getting resources for campaigns. But Beto changed that. Texas Republicans are pretty much maxed out on voters. For Democrats, we are finding people who never voted and reaching out. There are millions of voters still to get to the polls.
Beto lost by 219,000 votes. We can find those in Harris County. We have two years to really talk to voters and get them ready for 2020. Texas is a Battleground State. Beto O’Rourke showed the path and gave activists hope. THAT is why he matters!