USA TODAY International Edition
Texas Dems hope to gain via Trump
Party faithful hope the traditionally red state takes on a purple hue
First, there was DonHOUSTON ald Trump’s threat of a wall across the USA’s southern border. Then, his rhetoric aimed at undocumented immigrants. And now: the recently released recording where the GOP candidate is heard speaking lewdly about women and subsequent allegations of sexual misconduct.
Increasingly, Texas Democrats feel they’re gaining sufficient ammo to mobilize voters to their side and nudge Texas toward a long- held Democratic dream of transforming the Lone Star State from solid red to purplish.
“The Republican brand is getting destroyed at the top of the ticket,” said Manny Garcia, deputy executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. “And it’s penetrating down.”
Trump attended fundraisers last week in San Antonio and Dallas, even as fallout from the tape rattled some Texas backers. Initial reports signaled that Gene Powell, one of Trump’s financial backers, may be pulling out of the San Antonio event, but Powell later released a statement saying he was “disgusted and offended” by Trump’s remarks but would go ahead with the fundraiser, The
Texas Tribune reported. Despite its solid- red reputation, Texas has drawn much interest this election season. All candidates, including Trump, Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and both vice presidential candidates have held fundraising events or rallies in Texas this year. Republican and Democratic activists are wooing Latino voters in such places as Houston, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley, where much of Texas’ demographic shift from older and white to minority and young is occurring. And the Democratic National Committee announced last month it was adding Texas to its Victory Leaders Council, along with Arizona, Georgia and Utah, where national officials partner with grass- roots recruiters.
A WFAA Texas Tegna/ Survey USA poll out Thursday night showed the GOP nominee’s lead over Clinton down to 4 percentage points, a troubling sign for Texas Republicans, who have dominated statewide elections here since 1994. The state’s prized 38 Electoral College votes and growing minority populations, which tend to vote Demo- cratic, make it an attractive draw to party strategists.
No one expects Clinton to carry Texas. But Democrats like Garcia said they hope to capitalize on Trump’s misfires to build registration rolls and mobilize more Democrats to the polls. The state has signed up 1.2 million more voters since the 2012 presidential elections, with most of that growth coming from urban centers such as Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, according to Texas Secretary of State’s office.
At the center of the battle for Texas is Harris County, a sprawling county of 4 million residents and the third- most populous county in the USA.
One of the groups fighting to turn Texas’ political future is Battleground Texas, a group cofounded in 2013 by Jeremy Bird, Obama’s former national field director. The group backed thenstate senator Wendy Davis’ run for governor in 2014. She lost badly to the state’s GOP attorney general, Greg Abbott.
Although the loss stung, the group gained a database of more than 35,000 volunteers across the state from the effort, which they plan to expand in the coming years, said Oscar Silva, Battleground’s political director.
A key to that strategy: motivating more Latino voters to the polls. With 1.9 million Hispanics, Harris County trails only Los Angeles County among the 60 counties with the largest Hispanic populations in the USA, according to the Pew Research Center.
In Houston, staffers with Mi Familia Vota, a non- partisan group working to boost voting participation among Latinos, visit high school and college campuses across Houston.
At the University of Houston, Maria Villenas paced through the Student Center. In less than an hour, she had signed up a dozen first- time voters. “It’s different this year,” she said. “Latinos are feeling more comfortable with the voting process. They want to be a part of this.”