We're not giving up on Texas

We believe Texas will turn blue, but not without long term investments and rebranding.

Texas is a BIG State

So how big is Texas? Well, Texas is the 2nd largest state with 261,914 square miles of land. Texas however is also the 2nd most populated state in the union with 29,730,311 people. Just slightly 10 million fewer than California. Texas has the most number of counties than any other state at 254 counties, the next state is Georgia which has 159 counties.

Texas has a 367 miles coastline along the Gulf of Mexico and also has the longest stretch of border with Mexico at 1,254 miles. The next state is Arizona, New Mexico and then California. Texas is also home to five of the Top 20 largest cities in the US: Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin, and Ft. Worth.

Hispanics are now the largest ethnicity in Texas. But if you mix in all the culture diversity, variety of religions in the state and step back, WOW! Texas is a unique melting pot.

Because of this diversity, we need a fresh approach to Democratic organizing. One that requires investmenst in both monetary needs and manpower.

1. We need to organize ourselves

We need to create a Democrat Directory that lists all the players for Texas Democrats. We are talking grassroot organizations, precinct chairs, county chairs, unions, C3 orgs, C4 orgs, and the Texas Democratic Party. One of the struggles is that we don’t often know who to contact and where to start at a local level. So let’s make it easier and create an atmosphere of collaboration in which we can all work better collectively.

2. We need to have long term investment

We need the DNC to be willing to help create a long term strategy and help strategize and plan at a granular level. But most importantly we need the DNC to also invest in human capital in a variety of roles such as Data. From data experts, data gathering and messaging, investment in Texas needs to be year around, not just during election season. And we need to pay experts well, so the experts don’t quit and we lose that knowledge base. Texas sends the 2nd largest delegation to the DNC and there is a lot of money in Texas, so it’s time to invest here long term. We are already losing ground in the RGV due to year around investments from the Republican party. We need to counter this loss by investing in the RGV.

3. Data

We need a year around investment in data. From data experts, messaging, to data gathering. We need strategic help gathering data, using it wisely and sharing it with the Grassroot groups and candidates doing the work on the ground. We need to know what we don’t know and invest in getting the knowledge.

4. Rebranding, Marketing, and Messaging

Democrats have been painted as the boogeyman in Texas and it’s going to take a while to overcome this type of thinking. It is time to spend money year around on TV, Radio, and digital streaming media to slowly rebrand who we are as Democrats and what it means to vote Democrat in Texas. This Fall there was an amazing Candidate that had this great conversation while canvasing with a voter until she mentioned she is a Democratic candidate, then BAM the door was slammed. This is a common story.

We can’t follow the national strategy here, it’s not working in Texas. So what do we do? It’s time to invest in year around banding for Texas Democrats. From Social Media to post cards. We need to tell stories, show action, have heart and fight back.

Messaging is not an area in which Democrats excel. We need to come together identify areas that need messaging, create messaging that resonates, and then distribute and collect data. We can’t do that without organizing our whole party to be on the same page. This is where we can really come together in 2023 and get ourselves ready for 2024.

5. Invest and support in Candidates

We can’t expects to have Democrats running in every race and not expect to have some level of investment in our own candidates. A lot of times candidates feel they are not supported. So what will it take to make candidates feel as if they are supported.

1. Encourage candidates - Candidates know they have an uphill battle. They are running because the are tired of the all the hate from the TX GOP, but they still want encouragement even if their district isn’t winnable. Most of these candidates are in survival mode with little money and they just want to know someone is on their side. And they are working hard, so that sometime in the future a Democrat will win.

2. Endorse candidates. Quit making it so hard to get endorsements. And quit asking for donations in exchange for endorsements. Why are candidates being nickle and dimed?

3. Assist candidates in understanding the data for their voting district.

4. Train candidates about precincts in areas where there are no precinct chairs or a democratic party is weaker.

5. Pay for candidate filing fees, pay for their VAN access, provide training, and give them a checklist of things candidates need to have or do to kick off their campaign.

6. Prioritize winnable races, so we can flip and provide support accordingly.

7. Provide candidates with a base service and then charge on a sliding scale for more. This way candidates have skin in the game.

6. We need a Tx Democrat Political TV Show

We need to pitch and create a Texas Democrat Politics TV Show, Podcast, Webinar series that just focuses on getting democrats in front of Texans all over the state, building up our brand and promote candidate names. This is all part of building the pipeline. We need candidates with name recognition and we don’t currently have a platform to do this, so we need to create a platform. We think asking PBS stations first is the best place to start and do this for 8 weeks during the Lege. When you think about it Greg Abbott and the TX GOP hold so many elected positions that they are able to to have their names mentioned in the media several times more often than Democrats at any level. So the playing field on media isn’t even.

7. We need to give people the “Why” on why they should vote

We can’t let up about all the bills and things Democrats do for Texans and Americans. We need to give people the “why” they need to vote and “why” their vote matters. We need to knock on doors and really get to know our people. Let’s start giving people a reason to vote for Democrats.

8. Spend money where the votes are, but still work on building up votes in Red Counties

To win we need to have laser focus on bringing in votes where the voters actually live. Those areas of Texas need most investment because the cost per voter is lower. So focus on the top 10 counties with the most available democratic votes, then the next 10 counties, then the next 10 counties. For Rural Texas, we need to remind them what Democrats do for them, and that Republicans fail to deliver. And we need to build small organic organizations that can grow and do good things for their communities, so they can see that Democrats aren’t the boogeyman the Republicans make them out to be.

9. Hold Republicans accountable

We don’t do a good job of holding Republican’s accountable for the things they promise. That needs to stop. It’s time to hold Republicans Accountable. We need to point it out every chance we get and remind the general public of every instance they fail. We must not allow Republicans to get credit for things that Democrats make happen, like infrastructure and broadband expansion in Texas.

10. That old cliché Work Smarter Not Harder

We need a strategy that goes from the top down with a plan that takes us straight through till Election Day 2024. A plan we can build on, but have a clear vision of what our tasks should be. It’s time to work smarter, not harder and with less. We need to work together to combine as many resources as possible. We have amazing Grassroots organizations here in Texas and it will be great to involve them as much as possible.

11. Educate voters

This newsletter is actually part of our plan to educate voters. We are are planning on having a weekly TikTok called Mom Civics. Distributing a weekly newsletter where Texans can learn about how they can more actively engage in Texas politics. We can make politics more accessible to Texans, while making it fun and interesting. We hope this is the beginning of a new way of thinking about engaging in Texas Politics.

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