Election 2019: If Texas Is Going To Turn Blue, It Starts With This Special Election
When Beto ORourke traveled to his home state of Texas for the recent Democratic presidential debate, he made a surprising stop: at a rally with a state legislative candidate who is barely known outside the exurbs of Houston.
But if she wins Texas 28th Statehouse District in November, Eliz Markowitz could help change the course of U.S. politics for the next decade.
Thats because, over the next 13 months, Democrats have a genuine shot at breaking Republicans iron grip on Texas if they can flip just nine seats in the 150-member Texas House. And Markowitz, a longtime educator, is locked in a tight special election for one of the handful of seats Democrats have to flip to make that happen.
Control of the chamber would give Democrats a say in the all-important 2021 redistricting process the decennial redrawing of legislative districts according to new census data and give national Democrats a huge advantage in holding their majority in Congress.
Texas, thanks to severe Republican gerrymandering, currently provides the GOP with its single largest source of congressional power: Two-thirds of Texas U.S. representatives are Republican, even though in 2018 they won only 50.4% of votes cast for Congress.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/texas-special-election-eliz-markowitz_n_5d7fa712e4b077dcbd61e2c6