Texas Dems. Can y'all please talk to me?

[Shell_Seas]

I've been trying to talk about this all week with me Dem friends on Facebook and Facebook groups. No one wants to talk about it. Mostly, people keep saying, it's too soon. Let's enjoy the Biden/Harris win. I think it's fantastic that we're getting Trump out. More than fantastic. But we were supposed to slaughter the right in Texas this year, but instead, we were slaughtered.

That means, next year they redraw the maps in their favor. That means no healthcare for us, no legalization of marijuana, no criminal justice reform, corruption, and racism will continue to run unchecked.

IMO, the state Democratic party hasn't been focusing on the wrong things and their messaging has been way off. I've felt this for a while but I didn't want to publicly drag them, not in an election year. I still don't know if I'll write about them, but there's so much that went wrong.

First of all, Texas Dems put all of their eggs in one basket. They had some great candidates they put a lot of effort into, almost none of who won. But they also had really fantastic candidates in a rural area that they didn't give any attention to, from what I saw. Like Patrick Henry in HD26, was a fantastic candidate and got literally no help from local or state Dems.

Then there were 26 house Republicans that ran unopposed. Twenty-six.

Now, some of y'all may say that a lot of blame should go on the county parties. You're probably right. Because of my blog, I know a lot of people in county parties all around the state. Between lack of money, lack of a focus on the youth vote, and lack of inclusion, most county Dem parties are falling flat.

Take Parker County for example. There is a separate progressive group, not affiliated with Parker County Dems, that has way more members, and focuses on political issues locally, as well as community service, and getting on the vote for Dems. I really have never heard anything about Parker County Dems, except that they suck and don't do anything (from Parker County Progressives).

Then in other counties, like Cooke, the progressive group and the Dem party should be working together, but mostly they act like frienemies. They really need each other, but don't seem to like each other much, they constantly fight.

And Collin County has more drama than Beverly Hills Housewives. There is an ex-member who has stolen both their name and branding and uses it to trash other Democrats. Maybe there has already been legal actions to try and stop it, but it's hurting the county party. Then the attempted mutiny against Mike Rawlins was just messy. But there is a big ideology split in Collin County Dems, as there is with all Dems in Texas.

Half of the Dems are saying that the party is too moderate, the other half of them is saying it's not moderate enough. And I personally know of (multiple) left-leaning groups in rural Texas...like far left-leaning... Who are planning on infiltrating with far-left candidates and pushing the party further left. I'm not entirely sure I disagree with them, either.

Y'all are not about to like what I'm going to say right now, but Beto doesn't need to run anymore, he needs to stay behind the scenes organizing and fundraising. For one, he's lost two races already, and for two he does really well organizing and fundraising. I think that pushing him to run for governor in 2022 will be a mistake and cause Dems to lose again.

What's the solution to all of this? I really don't know.

Gen Z and Millennials are now out voting Baby Boomers. They live in an entirely different world than Boomers did. If the party doesn't move left, Dems are not going to win them over. If the party does move left, then they have to fight the meaning of words better. Words like socialism, defund, and Black lives matter.

Something has to be done about better rural outreach, for sure.

I really want to hear how everyone else if feeling about this right now. I'm still processing.

[Chainfire]

1. My theory is that

You just can't get Texas out of the Texans.

[Shell_Seas]

5. I'm Texan.

Texas should not be synonymous with stupid.

[Jirel]

2. I'll talk to ya'.

I don’t know where to begin. Party offices are all over the map, but at least the rural ones near me have been pretty ineffective. Some of it is poor funding, some of it is cluelessness about how to raise funds and not piss off voters, and some is about the county party acting more like the social club of a few longstanding members than a party. Then you have a bunch of alternative progressive groups who have no money, but are willing to do work... but some of those personalities and their politics are so allegedly left (they’re not) that they stray into alt-right conspiracy garbage.

By the way, this is rural me talking. Can’t speak to city politics as well, but “rural outreach” isn’t the problem. Helping repair rural county chapters is.

My husband and I helped a candidate several years ago who got no help from the state or county parties. They didn’t believe he could win his race, so they just ignored him. Nobody else was running, so what’s the point of saying no to a qualified, smart candidate? Whatcha holding onto money for, when you could at least make a good showing and get out the message? But no, I guess it’s better to let Rethugs run unopposed, I guess.

I agree about Beto. He should try to relaunch himself, just local or state house. But he has to win something. He can’t keep shooting for the moon and losing - either work with the party in another role, or show you can win something again, dude. You have good ideas. Please win a seat, any seat, and get back to being seen as viable.

[Shell_Seas]

4. Helping repair rural county chapters? How do we do that?

Do you think maybe rural county parties don't have enough support from the state party?

In Cooke County, I have a friend who is intending on running for a municipal seat next year and we reached out to Cooke County Dems and they said they would only help her if she changed her positions on the police. The thing is though, in Cooke County police and sheriff are really crooked.

[Jirel]

7. Support? Barely contact.

From what I’ve seen in MY area, there is barely any coordination. I think the first step is to strengthen those communications lines along with some more centralized planning.

Here’s an example of the fine work of one of our county chapters. For this election, they had no idea who was R or D in the area. Really, this should not be difficult to ascertain. So their brilliant scheme was to text every number in the county asking if they were R or D... using their own cel phones on unmasked numbers. They were shocked and unhappy when people of all political vents reacted poorly or angrily.

Don’t get me wrong - there are some really good people trying to do the right thing. But it feels like this sort of effort is high school level at best.

[Shell_Seas]

14. I agree. I have often spoke about how I never get contacted by my local Dem group.

The response to that is usually because I already vote (D).

[abqtommy]

3. Thanks. This is a good example of the ongoing education I get here at DU.

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. It takes a long time to fix gerrymandering. That seems to be job 1 in many states.

[Shell_Seas]

15. It doesn't look like we'll fix it this decade.

Gawd, just thinking about it makes me want to cry.

[Ferrets are Cool]

20. IKR? nt

[northoftheborder]

9. My county is rural/suburban. For a long time - two groups: the official county Dem. Party, and a

group whose function was to raise money for candidates, and be a social gathering. They were not antagonistic to each other, but since 2016 - with new sets of leaders, they have really endeavored to increase all the efforts, GOTV, raising money, getting and funding an office and advertising, and have increased the number of active Democrats, and voting Democrats trifold in the county. Everybody works together and celebrates and mourns together. It's really great. And I give full due to the leaders in each organization.

I did not know of other county's shortcomings and division. That is interesting to know - and explains a lot about why Texas does not do better. Also, why is the State Dem. Party not stronger???

[Shell_Seas]

16. Good question. I'm going to write them a strongly worded letter. I'm serious.

[BaileyBill]

10. Fannin County

We began advertising in the local rag (out of 254 counties, we are the only one allowed to have a "shopper" as our paper of record) in August with the goal of being broke by 11/4. Thanks to a very creative group, we raised 50% more than the Party in Grayson County (4 times larger than Fannin) and twice the amount of the Harris County Republican Party. We used that to fund a billboard and more advertising. We work hand-in-glove with the local Indivisible chapter and increased membership in both. We forced the local Republicans to begin spending on ads weeks before they normally do. And we got creamed.

The state Party had a goal for counties like ours to increase our Democratic vote by 3%, which I believe we exceeded. And we got creamed.

We had one local candidate for state office, and worked like crazy for candidates from the State House to the White House. And we got creamed.

We are fighting decades of propaganda and an uneducated and, frankly, racist population. I will say that it is encouraging to have heard from so many who were pleasantly surprised to learn that there was still an active Democratic Party in Fannin County and were willing to work for the future.

I have no answers for you other than to keep up the fight, but you must have been getting different information than I was if it was predicting we would "slaughter" the right. (I also think that the State Party has made significant strides, as well, but as a poster above pointed out the years of gerrymandering in Texas has given all of us an incredibly uphill climb. But there are some really enthusiastic and talented young people working for the Dems in Texas, now.)

[Shell_Seas]

17. Is 3% enough in a state that is historically a non-voting state?

[hurl]

11. Another northern county

nestled between Cooke and Fannin. Our little county D party is active, but we don't seem to grow the number of 'regulars' much. We have a great relationship with the local Indivisible group. For some reason, we struggle to connect with students at the two local colleges. We skew older, which works against us in that effort.

One thing that improved this cycle is that the state party had several initiatives where county parties could buy into larger efforts and pool resources. For example, we were able to send mass mailers to voters through the program, something we never have been able to afford in years past. We were able to work with a neighboring county to purchase yard signs for half the cost. So that kind of cooperation among counties and with the state party was a success for us and something we'd like to see more.

COVID didn't help. We responsibly decided not to put our volunteers and voters in danger, which meant we didn't rent office space. This was an adjustment, as nobody had experience switching to virtual meetings and communications in the months before a crucial election. Of course the Republicans had no such restraint, so they had offices and in-person events. Overall, we adapted pretty well under the circumstances, but our visibility was reduced at exactly the wrong time.

We did have lots of interest in yard signs, which felt exciting, but similar to BailyBill's story above, the election was disappointing. At the county level, we averaged percentages in the lower 20s, with only one area candidate barely exceeding 25%. It can be hard to recruit candidates with those odds, so there were still many uncontested races.

Regarding Beto, I like the energy and attention he brings. For that reason, I think behind the scenes is not the best use of his talent and charisma, but maybe he is a better cheerleader than candidate for the time being.

I think the largest part of our problem here is cultural. We are heavily populated with angry old evangelicals who can't abide abortion rights or melanin. Republican grievance marketing and tribalism will always carry them.

I have adjusted to the notion that we will likely never win locally during my lifetime. My focus is more on just trying to increase our visibility, normalize our presence, and make Republicans exert a little more effort. If we can erode their ability to run up the score in areas like ours, that may well be the best we can hope for. And then dream of a future where younger generations aren't as beholden to ignorance.

[Shell_Seas]

18. Wait for them all to die off? (the angry elderly evangelicals)

Also, why are they so angry, lol.

[LeftInTX]

12. Political parties differ from grassroots organizations

Grassroots groups can usually get something done quickly. They aren't hampered by this and that.

Political Parties are Political Action Committees and are hampered by Texas Election Code, campaign finance laws, Roberts Rules of Order etc etc. Precinct Chairs, who are the members of the County Party are elected positions and are subject to all of the above. Precinct Chairs tend to be much older than activists.

[LeftInTX]

13. BTW...The Texas Democratic Party has a Rural Caucus

They're a great group!

https://www.texasdemocrats.org/our-party/leaders/executive-committee/

I know locally, TDP was trying to flip HD 121 because it was seen as flippable. (Only a moderate Republican can win that seat) It was Joe Strauss's old seat and Steve Allison is no Joe Strauss. Unfortunately, the seat was not flipped.


To the north, we had Stephanie Phillips, who is awesome running against horrible, awful Kyle Biedermann. Unfortunately that flip was not likely due to demographics and although TDP was supportive, there were not many expectations or investment. It wasn't on TDP's list of flippable. (Bidermann won re-election with 75% of the vote)

It also was important to "hold" house seats that were gained in 2018. TDP invested in those races. Vikki Goodwin and Erin Zweiner kept their seats.

The state did not invest in State Board of Education District 5. All Rebecca Bell-Metereau had was a few paper signs. Lani Popp, the Republican had large purple signs that "Popped". Popp's purple signs were everywhere. The odds were in favor of Popp. To everyone's surprise Rebecca won on Nov 3rd.

[Shell_Seas]

19. That's disappointing, because the state board of education is a real problem.

My 5-year-old came home recently with a Christopher Columbus puppet he made himself. When I asked him if Columbus was a good guy or a bad guy, he said he was good, because he sailed across the ocean.

Luckily my 7-year-old was also in the car and corrected him by telling him he was a bad guy because he committed genocide. Which, I'm sure she learned from me. I've become really adamant about teaching my children the truth about colonialism and its effects on communities of color. I have to, they aren't taught it in school.