Democrats hoped that, with Wendy’s name identification at the top of the ticket and a Hispanic lieutenant governor candidate in Leticia Van de Putte, this might be the year they started the comeback in statewide offices.
In February, a key operative in the Obama campaign came to Texas with the idea of registering more Democratic voters and eventually making Texas into a place where Democrats once again have a decent shot at getting elected. It’s not yet clear what kind of an impact Battleground Texas will have on Nov. 4, but founder Jeremy Bird is optimistic. His organization has recruited more than 10,000 volunteers and attracted more social media followers than the Republicans.
The state’s changing demography simplified his efforts. The 2010 census found that Texas’ population had increased by 4.3 million over the previous decade, and more than two-thirds of the new residents were minorities. A staggering 2.8 million of them were Hispanic, a group that has historically voted Democratic.
Syndicated political columnist and frequent Fort Worth Weekly contributor Dave McNeely said he’s already seeing the effects of Bird’s work.
“The thing I have been interested in is that Battleground Texas and Davis are raising an amazing amount of money in $5 and $10 increments,” he said. “It’s amazing to me that she started with $1 million and has at least made a showing.”
In her most recent campaign finance report, Davis reported $6.8 million coming from 20,000 donors. Abbott needed only 840 donors to match that amount.
In August 2013 Davis appeared on the cover of Texas Monthly, along with rising Democratic stars Julián and Joaquín Castro. The article suggested that the trio might represent a Democratic resurgence. Strategists admit the party still has a ways to go, but many are optimistic that the Obama-style herding of voters to the polls, the rise of the Hispanic population, and their pink-shoed political darling will give them a puncher’s chance.
“The potential to turn the tide is there,” said Mary Beth Rogers, who was Richards’ campaign manager and later her chief of staff. “It’s not going to be easy. But there are cracks in that Republican dominance, and they are going to continue to get wider and wider. But it may take time.”
Besides Hispanic voters, Rogers and others say the key to Democrats pulling off the upset is getting as many voters to go to the polls this year as usually cast ballots in presidential election years.
Some observers predict that Van de Putte’s bid for lieutenant governor will benefit Davis by rallying Hispanic voters.
Courtesy University of Texas at Austin
Allan Saxe, University of Texas at Arlington political science professor, said he hasn’t seen any evidence that Van de Putte’s presence on the ballot will turn out enough Hispanic voters to tip the scales in Davis’ favor.
“I think it will have an effect, but it’s going to be marginal,” he said. “Everyone thought they would almost run as a team, but that hasn’t happened.
“[Abbott’s] use of his mother-in-law in his campaign ads has played pretty well [with Hispanic voters],” he said. “I’m a little surprised we haven’t seen Van de Putte energize the Hispanic voters more.”
One of the big disappointments for the Davis camp has been the lack of support by Texas women. A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 51 percent of women favored Abbott. The news on that front isn’t all bad; Davis has garnered a few percentage points more than Bill White, the Democratic nominee in 2010.
“I still think Wendy has a very good shot of moving into the more moderate suburban women voters,” Rogers said.
University of Texas government professor Bruce Buchanan said he hasn’t seen any evidence that Battleground Texas is having enough impact to swing the election. He said there’s still time for Bird’s organization to make a difference, but that Davis’ best chance at the governor’s mansion is to raise more money.
“I’m assuming they haven’t taken their best shot,” he said of Battleground Texas. “In order for her to close that gap, she would need a large infusion of cash, the origin of which is unclear to me at this point.”
Saxe said Texas voters chose their side before the campaign ever began.
“I don’t think there are any swing voters [in Texas],” he said. “The voter turnout is going to be lower than it was in 2012. You’ll see the true believers,” and not much else.
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Excellent article but with one exception. I would disagree with Glenn Smith’s statement that if the electorate knew the truth about the corruption of the last 12 years the Republicans wouldn’t stand a chance. The Texas electorate has become so complacent and so gullible during that time that they would believe anything the Repub’s told them. All they’ve been running on for the last 6 years is Obama and abortions and they continue to clean up across the state. Also remember that this is the party that has Dan Patrick running for the most powerful office in the state and thinks Konni Burton is fit for office.
i was further inspired by wendy on “daybreak” (wfaa, local channel 8 news) in an interview with alexa conomos. i believe wendy was correct in her prediction that “if all our supporters vote, we will win this race”. more is more so donate & vote because this girl is a much better poster child for texas than the last two gubernatorial goobers. long live dixie chicks.
re: corruption.
Evidently the voters are not the only gullible parties. Buddy Barfield, a longtime Dewhurst aid and crony has recently been indicted for stealing $2 million dollars from Dewhurst’s failed senate campaign which he allegedly spent on his mortgage and kids tuition, according to today’s Dallas Observer Unfair Park. Makes you kind of wonder,doesn’t it?
Baggers are going to be baggers, repugs are going to be repugs, hammer-heads are going to be hammer-heads—what else can they be? Just for spite, with a basis grounded in stone stupidity, these selfish half-wits shut the United States of America down—we couldn’t pay our bills, our promises, nor our obligations. A bigoted & hateful rancher in Arizona sent the U.S. government home with it’s tail between it’s legs, when it demanded payment for grazing his cattle on U.S.Government property. The U.S. had a choice to either retreat or kill hundreds of snot-slinging, jerk-off, Tea-Bagging peckerwoods. These two examples are only a tiny hint of both who and what we are dealing with. If we are so indifferent, or so wealthy, or so lazy that we allow this demented madness to continue, well, what goes around comes around. This nation was based on stealing the continent from the natives, hanging the witches, enslaving the Negros, poisoning and defecating on the natural resources, subjugating the female Anglos, while pretending to love Jesus. What’s new here? The problem here is not who Wendy is nor who Abbott is but who Texas voters are— and our problem is as big as Dallas.
Holland, you should see a therapist. All your comments begin with your “a=a; b=b; c=c” argument — which is true but meaningless — and abound with references to baggers, hammerheads, repugs, peckerwoods, ad nauseum. In your above rant, only the last sentence references Davis and Abbot, the subjects of the article.
Stouty, you need to kiss my foot. What do you eat? You need to get a decent job and amount to something. Who assigned a flake like you to suggest to any good Democrat what they need to do? Are you one of those Startle-Gram nit-wits? You, Stouty, are precisely who I was addressing, why don’t you grow up and amount to something? Have you no shame? Are you any kin to Gregg Abbott, you put me in mind of him. For many, many years the Weekly wasn’t bothered by jerks such as yourself. Have you no shame? You one of those stinking Baggers? Grow up, get a life.
Benny, your heroine, Wendy Davis’s campaign just pulled another dumb-blonde blooper, tweeting a photo of young people “who just voted for Wendy”. They turned out to be College Republicans — in Virginia! And she wants to run the state? Lord help us.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2014/10/22/confirmed-wendy-davis-literally-has-the-worst-n1908828
Stoutstinker, you continue to outdo yourself . Is your Startle-Gram office still inside the Men’s Room at the Greyhound Station? Is it still printed over in Dallas and bussed back over here? Let me up, Dude. The very first & best thinking of your piece-of-snot hero, Mr.Abbott, was to select the worse criminogenic, douch-bag child molester in the Western Hemisphere to rally the low-achieving knuckle-heads to his cause…Mr. Ted Nugent, Esq. Nothing more needs to be said. God forgive them for they are fools. Puh-lease!
“He later recanted the story and said he received a student deferment.”
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Ted Nugent received his student deferment in 1967, 2 years prior to the pants defecating incident at the induction center. And he got his deferment when he was touring with his band and not attending college so his deferment was fraudulently obtained. That’s a crime.
Nugent and all other eligible young men were then subject to the Draft Lottery in 1969 which got rid of all deferments. His lottery number was 163 which means he should have been drafted. Lottery numbers 1 to 185 got notices that first year of the lottery and that’s when he probably did what he originally claimed.
May I ask if anyone in chat considers this article biased? May I ask why do you support democrats? Texas is Texas for a reason, here you still have a better chance at becoming successful, here you can afford things. There is an overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly, emphasis on overwhelmingly amount of evidence that shows the struggle democratic states like Cali, Illinois, NY, RI, NH, etc. are facing. If you don’t like Texas then why don’t you move? The states I just mentioned will eventually be the same as Texas when it becomes democratic due to the heavy out of state influence. Just remember that your children will move out of this state when it is expensive and they’ll continue the cycle of moving into cheap republican states, they’ll complain, and that state will become democratic with more strict laws, higher cost of living, more government spending, etc. Even states that spend a crap load of money on education like Cali have literally the same education as Texas, Texas is ranked in the top 20 states for education (search it up) and both TX and CL have C- as average, in some ranking TX surpasses Cali (for instance math scores) Just remember when your family leaves this state because of what it is to become, remember who’s fault it will be, do not blame the republicans, independents, hillbillies, rednecks, whatever you want to say, remember it will be your fault, eventually the cycle will start over until the whole U.S.A. is consumed in this delusional mental state
I am not saying the republican platform is perfect or even close to it, but statistically it is the best option when it comes to assisting the economy. No not 99% of all republicans believe in religion, are anti-environmental, etc. you’d be surprised by how many people are lied to about this. The republican party has plenty of environmentalist, atheist, etc. its just that everyone (especially young people) are caught up in the whole lie about all republicans being white (that’s racist), anti-women, anti-gay, anti-globalwarming, etc. I have had plenty of discussions with democratic supporters (a lot of my friends) and I’ve showed them what the party is about I understand how you can “prove” that republicans are “evil” but these are the extremist, maybe if you’d actually do some research on your party’s opponent you would be more informed on which side is better for the country as a whole, you’d know that 90% of republicans aren’t anti-globalwarming- anti-atheist, anti-gay, racist, etc. I myself am a Hispanic republican, I used to support the democratic side due to me being lied to about the opposing side being evil. The reason why I switched was due to economics, literature (research opposing sides), economics, environmental science, etc. I am also an environmentalist, I recycle as much as possible, my home has green appliances, and my family has been “trying” to consume more plants (lets just say I am usually the one who eats all the fruit, vegetables, etc.) Basically don’t buy into propaganda do your own research.
Whose economy? The misguided Bible-thumping Peckerwoods or the rich, precious, little baby greed-heads at school? The reason why you switched, I expect, is because you’re in college (probably TCU) and all your associates are baby Repugs. You’re not old enough to have the personal experience, luckily, to be that selfish or black-hearted. Clearly there was an attempt to raise you right. It is obvious that you came out of good stock, but you’re getting to big for your britches. Read up on Thomas Jefferson’s religious beliefs, he was, I expect, even smarter than the authors of your religious research. You’re headed for grief with the Hotty-Totty hot-dogs. Don’t fall for it, you’re a good guy. I’m praying for you.
I agree with most of what you say, but all parties are subject to a certain amount of influence and corruption even.