San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Conventioneers warned GOP faces a tougher election
Some of the biggest names in Texas Republican politics used the statewide party convention to publicly scoff at the idea that a “blue wave” is forming that could sweep Democrats into office in a state that has been solidly red for more than two decades.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn quipped that Republicans have a “giant red seawall” to protect the state, while Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick suggested the party only needs to build a “bigger surfboard.”
But beyond the playful banter at the Republican Party of Texas’ weeklong convention, in mostly closed-door events and even in speeches from some of those same leaders, it’s clear Republicans are bracing for a tougher election cycle.
They recognize a future in which they’re more on defense as the state’s demographics change and Democrats make gains — particularly in Texas’ largest cities.
Cornyn, who won his Senate seat in 2002, offered a sober assessment to more than 8,000 Republican activists gathered in San Antonio. He warned that Democrats have a massive messaging machine, an angry base and a “Bernie Sanders Army” packing a lot of energy into the Democrats.
“We need to close the enthusiasm gap,” he warned.
Texas Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick told the same audience just moments earlier that Democrats are winning special election after special election across the nation as Republicans fail to turn out.
Many of those victories have come in congressional and state legislature districts Republicans typically win.
“The Democrats are motivated,” Craddick warned.
But it’s not just words. Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign teams held training sessions — called Abbott University — preparing Republican volunteers for a 2018 that’s unlike anything Republicans have seen in recent years.
Abbott’s team explained the threat U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Beto O’Rourke poses for all Republicans — not just Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican he’s trying to unseat.
O’Rourke is going to places in Texas that Democrats long ago appeared to give up on, and his fundraising worries Abbott’s team.
O’Rouke isn’t just outraising Cruz, but he’s raising a lot of money from small donors. Democrats likely will go back to those small donors later for more money, creating a financial stream the party has failed to develop in more than a decade.
In short, O’Rourke is working from a different playbook.
Cruz hammered the point home in his convention speech Saturday morning. He drew gasps when he told them that O’Rourke has more than doubled the Cruz campaign’s fundraising of late, despite Cruz having a nationwide network from his presidential run in 2016.
“He is raising more money than any Democrat in the entire country,” Cruz warned. “Last quarter, I raised $3.2 million — most of any Republican incumbent in the country. Last quarter, he raised $6.7 million — more than two times as much as we did. The hard left is angry. They're energized. They hate the president, and they’re coming for Texas.”
Emotion is a key factor in elections, Abbott’s campaign team warned Republican Party campaign workers. President Barack Obama rode the emotion-triggering “Hope and Change” slogan to the White House, and President Donald Trump’s “Make American Great Again” elicited the fervor that helped get him elected.
It’s why Republicans are retraining their campaign workers to bring more personal stories when they’re doorknocking or meeting potential voters. That emotion is critical to repelling the anger Democrats are riding against Trump.
The Democrat’s voter regis- tration campaign effort is also making a difference. Abbott University leaders told potential campaign workers that they hold Battleground Texas partly responsible for flipping Harris County from a Republican County to a place Democrats now win regularly.
Battleground Texas was created by a former national field director for Obama’s campaigns, and its goal is flipping Texas from Republican to Democratic.
Changing demographics also were a huge part of the conversation at the Republican Party’s convention.
Frisco Republican Cindy Asche built much of her campaign running for state party chair around a need to improve the party’s outreach to minority voters, millennials and independents. She warned the party has to broaden its appeal and target new communities or the changing demographics and growing diversity will endanger the party’s future.
“We have got to do a better job bringing people into the party that have our values,” Asche said.
Asche lost to Austin Republican James Dickey in the race, but he, too, talked up the party’s need to better reach out to bring in more voters.
Congressman Pete Sessions said part of the outreach has to be explaining to the legions of people moving to Texas every year why Republican policies, particularly on the economy, are critical to keeping the state moving forward.
Sessions said there have been so many people moving into North Texas that it is completely changed who is living in Dallas in Collin counties. They make up the bulk of his 32nd Congressional District — considered to be one of the most endangered U.S. House districts held by a Republican in the nation.
“Are people going to make Texas more like the place they used to live, or are we going to convince them to keep Texas the place that made them want to move here in the first place,” Sessions said.
He pointed to Colorado, which changed from a red state to a blue one quickly because of population growth and increased diversity.
National political analysts have increasingly predicted Democrats will win enough seats from Republicans in the U.S. House to flip it to Democratic control. In Texas, they’re counting on three seats.
Besides Session’s district, battles for Rep. John Culberson’s 7th District in Houston and Rep. Will Hurd’s 23rd District in San Antonio have Republicans on the defense. In all three, more voters picked Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
For rank-and-file Republicans like Curtis McKinley, the secret to Republicans in Texas repelling a Democratic wave is focusing on the economy and showing how it is helping everyone.
“Just keep that economy going,” McKinley said.
If Republican policies are keeping the economy rolling, he said that by Election Day, it could quell much of the Democratic energy.
That’s the message Abbott and Cruz both focused heavily on in their messages to the convention.
“Because of what we’ve done the past four years, the Texas economy is stronger today than it’s ever been,” Abbott said.
He and Cruz stressed the low unemployment rates for blacks and Hispanics, a message Republicans will try to use to prove their policies are working for communities that make up the base of the Democratic Party.
Cruz acknowledged tension within the Republican Party due to recently completed primary elections, and even the hot race for the party chair that turned negative. He said for Republicans to weather what the Democrats are bringing into the midterms, the party must re-unify.
“We need to come together,” Cruz said. “We need conservative, moderates, independents and libertarians. This election is all about turnout.”