» Texans weigh in on Biden’s candidacy.
While early polling shows Democrat Joe Biden running neck and neck with President Donald Trump in Texas, people seasoned in the state’s politics are voicing plenty of skepticism about the former vice president’s chances of winning here — and if Biden were to win Texas, some say it would be amid a landslide in which established swing states all go against Trump, too.
“But that’s nothing new. Texas has really been on its own — I mentioned it’s been 44 years since Texas last voted for the Democratic nominee for president. We’ve been pretty much left to our own devices for the majority of that time. ... I feel really good about what Texas is doing and whether or not the DNC or the Biden campaign fully invests commensurate with the opportunity that Texas represents, Texans, I believe, will carry the day.”
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, in an interview with Axios
“The radical Joe Biden-Kamala Harris agenda is way out of touch with Texan values. President Donald Trump and VP Mike Pence are leading the Great American Comeback, and Texas is the economic engine behind their agenda.” Former Gov. Rick Perry, on Twitter
“Biden is obligated by his party and the leftist movement to spend money here because they are dying to tell the Texas story in their narrative that they can turn this place blue if they just dump enough money here. What people forget, or if you’ve never been to Texas, is that there is a whole lot of Texas. And dropping into an urban area or two does not a Texas make.”
Jessica Colon, a Houston-based Republican strategist, to Politico
“The bottom line is that if Texas were to truly be in play in November — a very big if — then Biden wouldn’t even need Texas because he’d be winning by, oh, 400-plus electoral votes. In other words: by a landslide. So for goodness’ sake, don’t mess with Texas.”
Mark McKinnon, a longtime political strategist, in Vanity Fair
“Joe Biden is also going to win Texas in the general election for three reasons. First, Donald Trump and Gov. Abbott have made tactical decisions in their COVID response that is now killing Texans en masse. Second, Biden will defeat Trump in the Texas suburbs. Finally, from a historical perspective, Biden will outperform past Democratic candidates in the rural counties.”
U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela, an early Biden endorser, to CBS News
“But an incumbent generally gets no more than 1 percent more than his/her job approval. At the current rate, all four are gettable for Biden. Fight hard. Make them defend.”
John Weaver, an Austin-based political consultant who co-founded the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump political action committee of current and former Republicans, on Biden’s odds of flipping Ohio and North Carolina or carrying Texas or Georgia
“The advantage still remains for President Trump, but this is definitely much closer than we’ve seen at any time since 1976.”
Jay Aiyer, adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Downtown, to Houston Public Media