Pay attention, voters
Texas will play a bigger role than ever before in the debate over the future of the nation.
With a raging pandemic, a broken economy, social unrest and a future plagued by clouds of uncertainty, the Nov. 3 ballots for the control of the White House, Congress and the state Legislature could be the most important that Texans have cast in decades.
Far beyond the question of whether the state turns blue or stays red, the debates and decisions of the next 16 weeks will be about the response to the deaths and disease brought by the coronavirus, the best way to counter the loss of jobs and income, how to safely educate our children and the way forward on resolving racial division and injustice.
These are issues not just of vast importance but of great urgency.
It is essential that every citizen become engaged and educated to make informed decisions: register to vote, research the candidates and their positions and plan for how to safely cast your ballot at the polls or by mail.
The last pieces of the Texas election puzzle were put in place Tuesday with primary runoffs for U.S. Senate, a half-dozen competitive U.S. House seats, the Legislature and some local offices. The strong turnout, especially in early voting, is an encouraging sign that people are taking this seriously.
The congressional races play out under an unexpectedly close race at the top of the ticket between President Donald Trump and presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Trump carried Texas by 9 points over Hillary Clinton in 2016, a comfortable margin but one that hinted at weakness for Trump in a state that just two years before had elected Greg Abbott governor by a 20point landslide. Add in Beto O’Rourke’s near-miss against Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, and perhaps it’s no surprise that Trump has been deadlocked with Biden in most recent polls, including some that show the former vice president ahead. Given that Texas hasn’t gone for a Democratic presidential candidate since backing Jimmy Carter in 1976, Trump’s precarious position in the reliably red Lone Star State is raising questions about the national election map.
That’s because a Republican presidential nominee who can’t win Texas’ 38 electoral votes won’t win.
Trump’s weakness also raises hopes for former Air Force pilot MJ Hegar, who defeated state Sen. Royce West in the Democratic runoff on Tuesday to take on Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
The three-term incumbent remains a solid favorite, but his strong defense of Trump and his silence in the face of many of even the president’s most controversial acts opens the way for Democrats and Hegar to steer the debate to the president’s weak areas, including his failed response to the coronavirus, which polls show Texas voters disapprove of.
Still, while O’Rourke’s campaign two years ago electrified Democrats, the fact that he still lost decisively should serve as a reminder that Hegar has her work cut out for her. Cornyn is far less polarizing than Cruz, and the well-financed veteran politician may have learned some lessons from Cruz’s scare.
Hegar, meanwhile, must unite Democrats behind her campaign after an unexpectedly close race from West. She had major support from the national Democratic Party against the longtime Texas lawmaker who was trying to become the state’s first Black U.S. senator and had gained momentum from the recent movement protests for racial justice and equality following the police killing of George Floyd.
West’s late surge, and the tense moments between the two candidates as the race tightened, means that Hegar will have to reach out to Black and progressive voters if she wants to build a coalition that can overcome Cornyn’s advantages.
With most experts predicting that Democrats will retain control of the House, every Senate race becomes even more crucial to both parties, not just in legislation on issues like immigration, energy policy and the economy but also in nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court and federal courts.
If Trump’s poll numbers continue to slide, other Democrats on the ballot will be trying to make their races a referendum on the president’s performance.
Texas Republicans now hold at least five seats in the U.S. House that are considered at-risk for a Democratic takeover, an unusually large number in this age of gerrymandered districts. Each choice will tip the balance of power in Washington.
All of this means that Texas will play a bigger role in the national debate over the future of the nation and on how we deal with the horrendous problems that 2020 has presented us with.
If you weren’t already involved and paying attention, now is the time to change that.