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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow the biggest Republican stronghold in Texas could cost Gov. Abbott his job
There are good number of hard core Democrats who have been working for a long time to turn Texas blue. We are making progress due to some fun demographic trends and some hard work. Texas has been trending blue for a while. There are fun demographic trends that combine the fact that Texas is becoming less rural and that more older GOP voters are dying and are being replaced by younger more democratic voters. In addition, there is a region of Texas called the "Blue Spine" which is basically a corridor that runs from San Antonio to Dallas that is becoming a strong hold. These demographic trends may flip Texas in 2022
Link to tweet
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/election/2022/article/texas-gop-stronghold-beto-abbott-17411261.php?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=socialflow
900,000 new voters in Blue Spine
In 2018, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz beat ORourke by just 215,000 votes, and more than half of that margin coming from the Panhandle and South Plains, where Cruz won 3 out of every 4 voters. Cruz beat ORourke by 124,000 votes in those regions.
But in the four years since, those 46 counties have added just 10,000 voters, while there are more than 900,000 more in the 23 counties along the urbanizing and diversifying blue spine and Harris County, Texas Secretary of State data shows.
If ORourke can raise turnout and win the majority of those new voters in increasingly Democratic territory, 30 years of Red State dominance could be in the hands of those South Plains and Panhandle voters, and how much they want to defend Gov. Greg Abbott, a two-term governor.
Beto has held a ton of events in West Texas and smaller counties and has generated good crowds who are supporting Beto
If Texas turns blue, there is no way that the GOP will be competitve in the electoral college
James48
(4,436 posts)Maybe 15 years ago they were saying it will only be one or two more elections before Texas turns blue.
Ill believe it when I see it actually happen. Lets hope America still exists then, and Texas GOP doesnt simply decides to stop doing state elections. I wouldnt put that past them.
Good luck, and keep up the work-
dchill
(38,497 posts)That could do it. That SHOULD do it.
mopinko
(70,111 posts)rat fucked. long time. that's how w ended up in the wh.
..
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,264 posts)I have been following these trends for a long time. The key two trends are Texas becoming less rural and older voters dying and being replaced by younger voters. At one point, Texas was projected to turn blue by 2024 or 2026. Abbott and TFG may have helped these trends a little by killing off more GOP voters with COVID
Link to tweet
The overturning of Roe and Greg Abbott's stupidity with respect to the power grid and Uvalde are also helping
Texas will turn blue.
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,625 posts)DFW
(54,387 posts)Even those of us who now live 5000 miles from Texas!
CaliforniaPeggy
(149,625 posts)dalton99a
(81,511 posts)SlimJimmy
(3,180 posts)brer cat
(24,565 posts)Takket
(21,571 posts)Hate to be a wet blanket but it isnt enough to simply have more support. Your supporters have to have the ability to vote. And when they vote it has to be counted.
Beto will lose thousands of votes because of huge lines and lack of absentee ballots that the rethugs intentionally put in place. Along with rules to toss out legal votes because someones signature doesnt match for example.
The mountain for Beto to climb is much higher than just having more supporters.
LetMyPeopleVote
(145,264 posts)czarjak
(11,277 posts)Buckeyeblue
(5,499 posts)The south was over represented in congress because the African Americans who were slaves were figured into the overall population. Of course, these individuals had zero rights. But this artificially propped up southern representation. The electoral college is just an extension of this thought.
If we are going to be honest, the US has always been two different countries. The original slave states and the rest of us. The founding fathers would have been better off saying you go your way, I'll go mine. The south could have had their country, the north theirs. But the world would be much different today. Slavery would have probably lasted another 50 years. Who knows what else would be different.
ITAL
(637 posts)Can also award the party that gets less votes if they win more seats overall. The last time it happened in Great Britain was 1974. Australia just did it this year. It's rare, but it does happen.
malaise
(269,004 posts)Rec
tanyev
(42,559 posts)UTUSN
(70,695 posts)MagickMuffin
(15,943 posts)That needs to be expressed at all his town halls.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,347 posts)Roe, Roe, Roe your vote
against theocracy!
Republicans revoke your rights
and kill democracy!
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