Rise of big cities push Texas to swing-state territory -- maybe by 2020

[DonViejo]

BY REID WILSON - 11/18/18 06:00 AM EST

SAN ANTONIO — For a quarter century, Republicans have dominated Texas politics so much that the Democratic minority has often been an afterthought. The big political battles in Austin have been fought between conservative and centrist factions within the GOP, as Democrats watch from the sidelines.

But Democratic gains in this year’s midterm elections on the federal, state and county level show the prospect that Texas will become a swing state —a promise Democrats have made for years — is slowly coming to fruition.

Texas’s evolution illustrates two of the defining inflection points in American politics today: A growing divide between liberal urban cores and conservative rural bastions; and a shift in attitudes of suburban voters turned off by President Trump and his Republican Party.

Those factors have helped turn states like Nevada and Colorado blue, as large metropolitan areas like Las Vegas and Denver dominate more conservative rural areas. At the same time, they have pushed states like Pennsylvania and Michigan toward purple status, as the once-dominant metro areas like Philadelphia and Detroit lose population and political influence.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/417140-rise-of-big-cities-push-texas-to-swing-state-territory-maybe-by-2020

[dalton99a]

1. It is coming

Voters in Harris County, where Houston sits, kicked out a three-term Republican county executive in favor of a 27-year old political neophyte. Nineteen black women ran for judgeships in Harris County; they all won.

In Harris County, Republicans won the straight-ticket vote by nine points in both 2010 and 2014. This year, Democrats outperformed Republicans in straight-ticket votes by 11 points.

Democrats won the straight-ticket vote in Dallas County by one point in 2002, by seven points in 2006 and 2010, by ten points in 2014 — and by 30 points this year. Straight-ticket voters in Travis County, home of liberal Austin, chose Democrats this year by a 45-point margin, as turnout among those voters nearly tripled from 2014.

“Texas is in play for a presidential election,” Homan said. “The candidates we have, the campaigns we run, our ability to talk to a voting population beyond a narrow primary population, what we do in the next two years is going to define how Texas looks for the following ten years.”

[Horse with no Name]

2. Tarrant County has long been the holdout

And that nut cracked this year.
2020 is going to be interesting.

[JCMach1]

3. Once blood red Collin County ( north Dallas suburbs)

Was only Cruz +7. That's a huge shift in one of the fastest growing counties in the country. My street shows that change in motion in just two years, we are way more POC. African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and White people and quite a few immigrants. North Dallas also a large South Asian community.

[beachbum bob]

4. when hispanics in texas realize THEY hold the power, thats when we have a blue texas forever

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. K&R