Texas is in some ways the mother of all state legislature battles. Flipping it would be a big fucking deal. Here’s a cool way to give that WaterGirl found. You can give here to all the Democratic candidates running in districts won by Beto held by Republicans. There’s five in the Dallas area, two in the Houston area, and two elsewhere. I put them in a random order so you can just give to the one on top to avoid too many mailing lists.
Balloon Juice for Flipping Texas
If you’d rather you can give here to the Texas state Dem party or to some county parties in the Dallas area that Sam Wang thinks are great Moneyball places to give.
Texas State Democratic Party
Dallas County Democratic Party (TX) and Tarrant County Democratic Party (TX)
You can see all the candidates we are supporting here.
Tokyokie
I read the other day that in heavily Democratic Travis County ( Austin), 97% of eligible voters are registered. The case has been for several cycles that were turnout to be heavy statewide, the Democrats would win.
Chetan Murthy
I may be an exile now, but I grew up in Parker County and went to college in Houston. There are a ton of decent and honorable Texans, and they deserve our support. In addition to the Texas Democratic Party and some of the county parties, there’s also Annie’s List (supports female candidates statewide) and the Texas Organizing Project (does GOTV: they were a major force behind turning Harris county so heavily blue, a while back).
TX probably won’t turn blue this cycle. But it’s getting closer, and when it finally does …. the GrOPers are done for.
And maybe, just maybe, in my dotage I can visit Texas and feel safe.
ETA: I know we’re not supposed to feel sentimental. And I sure pour on the vitriol when it comes to Texas: so many of those crackers, I wouldn’t give a damn if they all DIAF. But over half my political contributions this year, went to Texas. B/c holey cow, the decent people of Texas deserve a break.
Sandia Blanca
I’ve been working the Texas Democrats’ Voter Assistance Hotline, and I have to say the people who are calling in are very motivated and determined to get their votes counted. So interesting to hear the particular issues that grab them; yesterday I spoke with a Vietnamese immigrant who was just outraged that trump only paid $750 in taxes, while the American people pay their fair share.
DougJ
@Chetan Murthy:
Texas gets a bad rap in my opinion.
Anoniminous
Wish Texas would clean up its act so they would stop moving here and fucking-up New Mexico.
It’s like re-living my life in Louisiana during the Jim Crow years.
BethanyAnne
O/T, but I loved this:
Anoniminous
@Anoniminous:
Newly imported Texans telling Navajos to “go back to where they came from” is particularly annoying
CaseyL
It’s good to see a focus on Texas. The Texas Democratic Party has, or had, a bad rep; if they’re now active and energized (and funded!), that’s an amazing good thing.
In other news: I have voted! (Washington state)
Originally planned to take the ballot in person to the Elections Division Office, but didn’t want to take time off during a workday for that (it’s way south of me, about a half-hour drive each way). Turns out the Elections Division Office is also a drop-box location, so I went down there and put my ballot in the drop box.
Bank one more vote, Blue All Through.
(Tried to take a photo, but my phone was being very uncooperative.)
Chetan Murthy
@DougJ: Not sure in what sense you mean “a bad rap”, but …. growing up in the late 70s and 80s, it sure sucked outside of …. well, Houston (probably Austin was OK, San Antonio too). I mean … *sucked*. Racist hellhole. I know it’s changing. But the scars of your childhood stick with you, esp. when they were burned-in deep. I cannot imagine (for instance) biking on any road in Texas: I’d be forever afraid of being sideswiped by some good-ol’ boy into a ditch and left to die.
Doesn’t matter, in the end: there are enough good and decent people, that eventually they’ll take over. And maybe things will change for the better.
piratedan
my fathers 2nd wife (his widow) who is now 83 said that she and her fellow Dems have been working on door knocking and placing door-knob hangers in all of the retirement communities. The Texas burbs are apparently in serious play not just in the DFW area, but Houston and San Antonio as well. I think Beto made it okay to be a Democrat in Texas once again as he was able to connect to the young professional crowd that always had the GOP as a default setting as well as his roots in the Hispanic community.
zhena gogolia
Is anybody else having the experience that when you try to click on a tweet (here but also elsewhere), the first time it tells you “try again,” then the second time works? It’s really annoying and only started happening a few days ago.
CaseyL
@zhena gogolia: I think Twitter has been going down intermittently. I haven’t gotten that message so far today, but was getting it yesterday.
dexwood
@Anoniminous: “Poor New Mexico! So far from heaven, so close to Texas!” Manuel Armijo, Mexican territorial governor of Nuevo Mexico, 1841.
Some things never change.
Marcopolo
@Tokyokie: From what I am reading the expectations the TX electoral folks have are that there will be massive turnout from both sides this year in TX. Since Ds are choosing to vote earlier (and Rs later) this cycle, so far we are seeing the massive D turnout but that doesn’t preclude a huge R vote on election day.
These same folks are all agreeing that the Rio Grand Valley which is 86% Hispanic, leans substantially D, but only had 42% turnout in 2016 is a big key to a D win in the state. If the RGV votes more in line with the rest of the state in 2020 that would add a couple hundred thousand votes. There were ~250K total votes (659K registered) out of RVG (Hidalgo & Cameron Counties) in 2016. As of today, ~130K (over 50% of the 2016 total) votes have been cast in those counties in 2020. Still too early to know but keep your eyes on that area.
Sister Golden Bear
Fantastic Biden ad that speaks to me and all my performing friends and all those who miss being able to go out and see them.
Worth noting, The Beastie Boys have never licensed their music to be used in any ad… until now. And the use of “Sabotage” <chef’s kiss>
Marcopolo
Thanks so much for this thermometer. Timing is just a little late for me, though. I actually gave $25 to 8 TX state house races about this time yesterday. Even so, I did get 5 of the candidates on the BJ list: Johnson, Bacy, Chambers, Cattanach, and Sanchez. My other three were Holguin HD-32, Bean HD-93, and Hurtado HD-126. Sure hope these folks pull it off.
LivingInExile
@zhena gogolia: Yes I have been having the same trouble.
Kent
I lived in the Waco area from 2003 to 2016 and saw it turn from reasonably blue (Dem mayor, Dem Congressman, lots of local Dem politicians) to bright red over those 13 years. Part of it was Tom DeLay’s redistricting which decapitated the local Dem party and we wound up with a tea party Congressman from the Fort Worth suburbs.
But race also became a bigger issue during the Obama years as so many suburban whites just reflexively voted GOP. The local Dem party gradually shrank to a largely black and Hispanic party that was dripping with patronage. You basically didn’t get on the ballot as a Dem in any reasonably competitive local race without running the patronage gauntlet of vested local politicians. So that probably also alienated potential white Democratic voters. Party ID was much more of a proxy for race in 2016 than it was in 2003. As a white suburban Dem voter I really had no one much to hang with except for a few other teachers who shared my views.
Hopefully that tide is really changing.
cain
@BethanyAnne:
They are right – a lot of folks get all bent out of shape because we aren’t rising above the fray. Meanwhile everything is being taken from us. But gosh, at least we look good being ineffective.
It’s time to show what a very determined democratic party looks like and they should fear the kind of people who win wars. This time we aren’t going to be all fraternal like we did after the civil war. Play for keeps.
cain
@Chetan Murthy:
I’m sorry that happened to you. That kind of thing sticks to you like tar. I am lucky to not have grown up that way, and was more naive about racial prejudice.
But these last 4 years have thrown the veil aside and tossed into a fire. It’s sort of a death of innocence – not only for me, but for my entire family.
RaflW
Cornyn seems to recognize that he’s in some troubled Texas waters (like a couple of those Lake Travis boat paraders?). So he now says he ‘privately’ resisted Trump a few times.
What a laughable effort. Now he looks weak to the Trump core in Texas, but also is signaling to the Trump-phobic in Texas that he’s too flabby and uncommitted to accountability to stand up publicly. Sasse can get away with this nonsense in solidly red Nebraska. Doesn’t work in a rapidly changing, rapidly urbanizing Texas.
Chetan Murthy
@cain: Feel like noting, though, that in a way, moving to California has been a rebirth of innocence. Seeing mixed-race groups of kids (and of mixed-race kids) is ….. invigorating and brings new hope. Sometimes I don’t feel American anymore. But I always, *always*, *always* feel Californian. It’s impossible not to, when you see so many people of different races and ethnicities every day.
Kent
@Chetan Murthy: Moving back to WA in 2016 after over a decade in TX has done more for my mental health than anything else. Instead of living in perpetual rage against my local and state politicians, politics, and community I finally live some place where my values are more or less reflected by my government Where voting is universally easy. And government works to make things easier rather than harder.
It has been especially good for my kids now that they are past the taint of being “new kids” and have their deep friend groups that are a lot more diverse than they were in TX.
I don’t think I could have stayed sane living in TX in 2020 with the twin outrages of the pandemic and state politics.
Another Scott
@RaflW:
Yup.
Cheers,
Scott.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Cornyn is cutting and running from Dump
There’s no way Cornyn would be doing this unless his internal polling has him on the brink of defeat.
frosty
@zhena gogolia: I get that every single time when I click on one of AL’s links. I go up to the URL, hit enter and it works. “Try Again” is intermittent.
Chetan Murthy
Holey mackerel. If Biden and/or Hegar take Texas, I am -so- gonna want to go to a bar (I won’t, sigh) and buy them all a round. Holey mackerel.
Josie
Cornyn has never been the sharpest knife in the block, but he is somewhat painted into a corner. I’ll bet Cruz is thanking his lucky stars that he is not up for reelection this time around. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for huge turnout in the Rio Grande Valley.
oatler.
“Hey, let’s hold a seance!”
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/archbishop-performs-exorcism-cleanse-protest-site-73675815
Sure Lurkalot
One of my oldest friends (going back almost 40 years) lives about an hour or so from Austin. We had a Zoom call last night.
We come from disparate backgrounds…I was her first Jewish friend and she grew up in virtually white rural neighborhoods while I grew up in suburbs of big cities. Her family…wonderful people in so many ways…reliable Republican voters.
She wasn’t at all political when we met. Our friendship waned when she left Denver but after a long hiatus, we reconnected and became good friends again through her recovery from alcoholism. She moved back to Colorado and lived in Durango for many years. She got more interested in politics as one of her nephews was pretty dialed in.
Now when we talk, it’s almost all politics. She’s a total news junkie and very progressive. But the best part of this long winded story is her mom and her aunt, both in their 80’s living in Texas. They had voted Republican their entire lives, including Trump in 2016, even though her aunt admitted she despised the man. It was like drinking water when thirsty…they didn’t really give it a thought. So it was nice to hear last night that they both voted for Biden, and her mom even bragged that she voted for every Democrat on the damn ballot.
Another Scott
ActBlue just rolled over $7,300,000,000.00
Cheers,
Scott.
Nelle
@Anoniminous: I’m from a high Covid state (Iowa) and may need to get to Phoenix (mental health situation for adult child there). It is my understanding that I cannot drive through New Mexico. Would that be right?
joel hanes
Want to flip Texas?
Give voters transportation to the polling place.
https://rideshare2vote.com/
Kent
He’s not that dumb. He was educated in Japan and was a state Supreme Court Justice. He has just done a very good job (until this year) of playing the Texas Good Ole Boy to win statewide election in TX, first as attorney general, and later as Senator.
You have to learn to act dumb as a GOP politician because there are basically no smart defenses for most of the shit they vote for and stand for. The few politicians who try to make it into a smart thing, like Sasse and Paul Ryan just end up looking like massive tools. And Republican voters don’t like them some politicians who get too smart on them
pluky
@Kent: He did junior and senior HS years at ASIJ while his father was stationed in Tokyo by the Air Force. I don’t think that really counts as “educated in Japan”. Otherwise, his academic credentials are respectable, but not outstanding.
Jinchi
@Nelle: You’re allowed to drive through the state. (Click the link for details)
Litlebritdifrnt
So I made a Roast Beef dinner this evening. I plated up, DH got roast beef, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots and peas, gravy and bread rolls. After I had plated up there was left over mashed potatoes, left over roast beef, and left over gravy. I finished my dinner and took my plate into the kitchen to see my DH coming out of the kitchen with roast beef, all of the mashed potatoes and gravy. Him “do you think I’m eating too much?”
Nelle
@Jinchi: Thank you. I did not find that when googling. I must have poor skills.
Kent
Point is, he’s not a Gohmert. He doesn’t actually say overtly stupid shit. He just does the Good Ole Boy act because that’s what GOP voters like. Put another way, he’s more opportunistically venal than stupid, which is worse in my book.
On the other hand, spending decades pretending to be stupid actually does make you stupid. The brain does atrophy with disuse.
jonas
I’m no expert in Texas electoral politics by a long shot, but my impression is that the RGV is a lot like California’s Central Valley — big Latino population, but 1. lots of them are undocumented and can’t vote, and 2. those who can vote are a pretty diverse mix of evangelical Catholics, politically disengaged workers and younger people, and not a few conservative old guys who think of themselves as “real” Tejanos and like Trump’s build-the-wall and law-and-order rhetoric. If there is a huge turnout there, it would probably be a boon for Biden and the Dems, but not necessarily a blue wave.
Jeffro
@Sister Golden Bear: I was just retweeting/commenting on that one, it’s awesome! It “Ad-Rocks”!! (get it? ;)
Jeffro
@RaflW: Cornyn losing would be just…well, it would partially make up for this incredibly crappy year. Like a fair amount of it, actually.
Kent
@jonas: The RGV is pretty blue. But also has notoriously low turnout. If TX becomes truly competitive then it could become a real battleground as there are a lot of people who live there and who are pretty far off the radar from the rest of TX. I say that as someone who lived in central TX for over a decade and for who the RGV basically did not exist except when you go to South Padre on vacation.
Jeffro
yes…Yes…YES
Please let him and the orange moron start to get into it in these last 16 days. Let trumpov lose his shit and start railing about all the “RINOs” who are abandoning him…get that loser stink going all around…yes!
Kent
Wow, just saw a brilliant on-point Biden ad just now while watching NFL. All about the military vote and serving the country. Powerful. I can’t find it on youtube. Very strong closing ad.
Geminid
There are not many days left before November 3, but I hope Kamala Harris can still campaign in Texas. Just one day would generate a lot of energy and local media coverage.
debbie
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I call bullshit on that second tweet. He’s always known what Trump is.
Mary G
@joel hanes: They give voters rides to the polls or ballot drop boxes! I’ve been looking for something like that, thank you. That’s a great organization to push up turnout and fight voter suppression! Signed up for $5/month and will continue it on into 2022. Many of my monthly candidates are swimming in money and I’m rebalancing today, just like my retirement funds.
Also gave a mite to all three above, partly because I smell Texas Republican blood in the water with Coryn’s flip flop today. Also in honor of my mother, who was born and raised in Austin, and became a Republican because they were less racist at the time. She also hated LBJ almost as much as raven does. He spoke at her high school graduation in 1940 when he was a freshman representative.
She started getting pissed off about abortion years ago and reregistered as a Democrat in 2008. We even had an Obama yard sign, and I still have the front section of the LA Times that she saved after he won. I imagine all my estranged relatives there are devoted Trumpistas, and fuck them.
Quinerly
@Another Scott:
am I reading this figure correctly? 7 billion plus? Since when? Do you have a link? I’m looking on line and not finding a link. Thanks.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Quinerly:
That’s the total since 2004.
If you go to their site, there is an animation of the running total at the top of the page. For me it works on the desktop version of the site but not the mobile version.
J R in WV
@Quinerly:
The $7 billion, 300 million $$ total is since they started. But it was just recently that it flipped past $6 billion. The last $300 million was in about 2 weeks. It’s awesome.
I have the totalizer, which is on their ActBlue front page, up all the time just so I can click over there and watch the number soar up.
cain
That’s great! I grew up in Indiana, but in a college town and I never felt different – but I think the other indians did? I think part of that is that my parents were more progressive and had both American and Indian culture celebrated while I think the other kids got more stuck with Indian culture and rules and that put them apart. I mixed with the locals with an ease that I think other Indian children did not. Cost of course is that I’m a fish out of water in the Indian diaspora.
cain
The shit Abbott is doing is not going to win him any favors either. Abbott is a full on Trump bot and he’s going to get rolled in the next election.
Zelma
Well, I just discovered that Ben Lujan is the only Democratic Senate candidate who has been out raised by his opponent! I guess I’m going to have to send him more money. He’s sort of been at a disadvantage in the fund raising arena. He’s running as a Democrat for an open seat in a Democratic state and he’s been leading the whole time – although his lead is declining. So there’s no push for him like candidates who are challenging a Republican incumbent or like Gary Peters in Michigan of Doug Jones in Alabama who are in danger. I hope the DSCC is giving him some help. After all, the party owes him. He led the DCCC in 2018 and did a pretty good job.<g>
Geminid
@Jeffro: Cornyn would have done better if he’d said nothing than make such a feckless self-justification. I bet he and other Texas republican officials are telling the trump campaign, “No, we’re good. Really. No need for a presidential visit…trump should go to other states where he’s more needed.”
PsiFighter37
@Zelma: More than happy to have the GOP pissing away money in New Mexico. The only race to focus on their is Torres Smalls’ seat – no chance in hell they win a statewide race at this point. Hard to believe they had a 2-term Republican governor (Susanna Martinez) recently.
Zelma
@PsiFighter37:
Well, I have a personal interest in Lujan’s race since he’s my son’s boss.<g> The Post had an interesting article comparing Dem and Rep fund raising. The suggestion was that the Reps are not being very strategic especially the small donors. Like they are giving lots of money to the opponents of AOC and Omar when there is no chance of winning. Like you said, spending money in the NM Senate race is not a good use of scarce resources. But my kid wishes the lead was larger: less tension at the office.