Austin, TX — Yesterday, Sunday, November 3rd marked one year from the 2020 election. The Texas Democratic Party remains in prime position to win in 2020. With several polls showing top Democratic contenders beating Donald Trump in Texas, Trump underwater in the state of Texas, John Cornyn with an abysmal 35% approval rating, and Texas Democrats with a clear path to victory, the Texas Democratic Party is ready to win up and down the ballot in 2020.
Texas Democratic Party Executive Director Manny Garcia issued the following statement:
“Change is coming to Texas — Texans are demanding it, and a new wave of activists and progressive candidates delivering. They’re fired up about affordable healthcare, ending gun violence, reversing climate change, and protecting our diverse communities.
“We are one year out from the election, and the Texas Democratic Party is in a strong position to win up and down the ballot. Thanks to our expert staff, innovative programs, outstanding allies, and key partnerships, we’re on pace to turn Texas blue in 2020.
“We will win the White House, take out John Cornyn, expand our Texas congressional delegation, break the supermajority in the Texas Senate, flip the Texas House, and elect hundreds of local Democrats across the state. We will do all of this, not for the sake of just winning a political race, but because every single person deserves a fair shot to get ahead. That’s what Texas Democrats are fighting for.”
For a look at some of the programs driving the optimism of the Texas Democratic Party, see below:
Protecting and Expanding the Vote
Vote-by-Mail
The Texas Democratic Party’s vote-by-mail program makes it easier than ever for eligible voters to request a ballot and vote applications are mailed to voters using advanced modeling, ensuring the applications reach the targeted Democratic voters need to win. Voters simply sign and return the application to receive all of their ballots in the calendar year. We have one of the highest application return rates in the country.
Voter Registration
Thanks to the work of our top-tier data and field teams, the Texas Democratic Party is making major investments towards registering 2,600,000 unregistered Democratic voters.
MyTexasVotes.com
MyTexasVotes.com is our one-stop voter information hub for Texas Democrats. Texans can easily find their polling place and when their polling place is open. Our polling place locator is available in five languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese, and Hindi. We also send automated voting reminders to Texans who make their voting plan.
Igniting Campaigns From the Ground Up
Candidate Services
Ready for the filing period, the Texas Democratic Party is supporting over 2,000 candidates who will file to appear on the Democratic primary ballot, providing them with template budgets, plans, and tools — our “Campaign in a Box” — preparing them to launch, and outfitting their campaigns with services offered by the Texas Democratic Party, including data analysis, training, and digital organizing tools.
Data
Texas Democratic Party is the data backbone of the progressive movement. The Texas Democratic Party data team is the only entity that can provide candidates and campaigns with the Democratic voter contact database, VAN – Voter Activation Network.
Messaging
Our communications, digital, and research teams are holding Republican accountable, spreading the Democratic message across the state, and ensuring that our narratives and programs are being explained to the general public. They are tireless and work non-stop to win elections across the state. Our teams meets voters where they are at, gets the Democratic message out to every corner of the state, fights back against incorrect Republican narratives, and supports Democratic candidates to make sure their message and values breaks through the clutter and the noise.
Organizing
The Democratic National Committee has already committed to funding constituency organizers for the Texas Democratic Party.
By the end of the cycle, the Texas Democratic Party projects to have over 1,000 field organizers and blockwalkers on the ground — knocking on doors, making calls, sending texts, engaging online, and getting out the vote for Democrats up and down the ballot come Election Day.
Staff the Movement
Much like the DNC’s organizing corps, the Texas Democratic Party’s innovative Staff the Movement program trained 44 Texans with little or no previous campaign experience to deploy across the state as we look to turn Texas blue. The program was 70% people of color and majority woman. The Texas Democratic Party was able to place 90% of Staff the Movement graduates into full-time roles across the state. Due to the success of the first program, the Texas Democratic Party is holding a second Staff the Movement in January.
Electing More Texas Democrats
Biggest Coordinated Campaign in Texas History
Texas is the biggest battleground state in the country.
In 2016, Texas became a single-digit state for the first time in two decades, performing better than traditional battleground states like Iowa and roughly the same as Ohio. In 2018, the statewide margin narrowed down to just 2.56%. Now, poll after poll shows Texas Democrats are ‘essentially tied’ in the presidential race.
It takes great candidates, committed volunteers, strong allies, resources, smart operatives and the trust of the voters to win. That’s why the Texas Democratic Party is building a coordinated campaign as big as Texas, so that thousands of Texas Democratic volunteers engage Texans in every corner of the state.
Flip the Texas House & Breaking the Supermajority
Texas Democrats need just 9 seats to take back the Texas House — there are 22 Republican districts within 10 points. Texas Democrats are just 1 seat away from breaking the supermajority in the Texas Senate. In 2018, Texas Democrats picked up 2 state senate seats and 12 state house seats.
Cornyn War Room
Two-thirds of Texans either don’t know or don’t like John Cornyn, that’s why every day the team at the Cornyn War Room is focused on making sure Texans know exactly what John Cornyn is up to in Washington, D.C.
The Cornyn War Room builds a hard line of defense against Cornyn’s Republican tactics, and creates the offensive strategy necessary for our Democratic candidate to win. We know that once Texas goes blue, the Republican path to the White House will be blocked.
Expand our US House Majority
In 2018, we flipped 2 congressional seats. Colin Allred (TX-32) & Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7).
In conjunction with the DCCC, we’re already looking at 6 congressional seats in 2020 (TX-10, TX-21, TX-22, TX-23, TX-24, and TX-31). More than any other state. All of these congressional districts were within 10 points in 2018.
DCCC says in 2020 “a rapidly emerging Democratic coalition will make Texas a focal point of the House Democrats’ offensive strategy.
Nancy Pelosi recently said, “Texas is ground zero” and “our hope for the future.”
Press release courtesy of the Texas Democrats
