Could Texas Go Blue? Political figures weigh in on likelihood of Democrats winning local, state, federal positions o u t n u m b e re d Story and Design by Jeneta Nwosu in state
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yan Poppe, Deputy Communications Director for the Texas Democratic Party, believes 2020 is the year Democrats finally take Texas back. The Texas Democratic Party is campaigning for Texas Democrats at the local, state and federal levels and for the Democratic Presidential nominee. “In 2020, we are re turning Texas blue,” Poppe said. Some are a little more skeptical. “Democrats have a long road ahead of them,” Carolyn Barta, longtime political writer at the Dallas Morning News and a retired Southern Methodist University journalism professor, said. “They are way
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government.” No Democratic presidential candidate has won Texas since Jimmy Carter in 1976. “Reagan was very, very strong in Texas in the 1980s, and a lot of people during that time switched over to the Republican party from the Democratic party,” Barta said. In 1978, Republican and HPHS alumnus Bill Clements was elected governor and became the first Republican to hold the office in 104 years. From there, Barta said, Texas became more of a swing state. Republicans swept all statewide offices and state Senate seats in 1998, and by 2002,
they took the majority in the Texas state House. Since then, the Texas state government has been totally controlled by Republicans. But Poppe is optimistic. “If you look at polling that’s been done we as a party have never been closer than we are right now to winning this state,” he said. There are a lot of figures that Democrats have pointed to as signs for victory. More than 1.5 million voters have registered since the 2016 election. The Houston Chronicle reported that it more than two times the average for the last four presidential election cycles. “They’re all new voters, but they’re
