Many Texas Democrats are distancing themselves from President Joe Biden as centrist and liberal candidates alike contest the first primary elections of the 2022 midterm cycle.
And while Tuesday’s primaries are intraparty melees, the races will provide clues regarding Democrats’ chances of holding on to power after November and the political turf war that may unfold before 2024.
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Biden “does more harm to your campaign than good” if you are a Texas Democrat running statewide or in a battleground district, according to Republican strategist Derek Ryan.
“Along with his dismal approval ratings, there are too many issues that he is on the wrong side of to appeal to a large portion of the swing voters in Texas,” Ryan told the Washington Examiner.
For example, Biden’s green energy proposals are detrimental to West Texas Democrats, even near Houston, and those in the traditional South Texas Democratic stronghold due to their oil- and gas-dependent economies, Ryan contended.
“There are other factors at play in South Texas which make the region an area of potential growth for the Republican Party,” he said. “Border security is an issue that appears to be swaying voters to the right, and it’s been nearly 4,900 days, 4,883 by my actual count, since Joe Biden has had a campaign or official stop along the border.”
Although Biden has been snubbed by other Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania Democrats, Texas is a test for the president, centrist candidates, and their more liberal counterparts as Democrats grapple with their poor midterm election prospects.
The record number of retiring Democrats is creating opportunities for liberal insurgents to succeed them. That means the far Left could dominate a decimated party for the last two years of Biden’s administration, with repercussions for 2024. The Texas primaries also coincide with Democrats’ erosion of Hispanic support amid immigration problems.
For instance, even though Biden won Texas’s 28th Congressional District by 9 percentage points in 2020, Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar did not mention Biden on social media this year until last week when the president unveiled Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Cuellar, who is embroiled in an FBI investigation, is among Biden’s toughest immigration critics. Meanwhile, Jessica Cisneros, his liberal challenger, is calling on the president to abandon his deterrence border policies and overhaul the country’s asylum system.
Cisneros has been backed by far-left Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, in addition to New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, for her and Cuellar’s 2020 rematch over the San Antonio border district. She has not referred to Biden on Twitter since last November.
For months, @RepCuellar has relentlessly fought against President Biden’s Build Back Better budget bill — attempting to stop it in its tracks or water it down for his corporate donors.
As usual, Congressman Cuellar works harder for his corporate donors than than our families.
— Jessica Cisneros (@JCisnerosTX) November 19, 2021
And until the Russia-Ukraine war, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, who is vying for Rep. Filemon Vela’s soon-to-be-vacated Gulf Coast 34th District, and Greg Casar, who is contesting the San Antonio-to-Austin 35th District, last tweeted at Biden to implore him to forgive and cancel student debt, respectively. Gonzalez has since cited the president in an online missive about Ukraine.
Putin has gone back on his promise to not invade & there must be accountability for his actions. Ukraine has shown nothing but good faith & a willingness to live peacefully w/ their Russian neighbors as a free country. It must be stated that an attack on one is an attack on all. https://t.co/KpysCcIDbe
— Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (@RepGonzalez) February 24, 2022
On average, 41% of polling respondents approve of Biden’s job as president, according to RealClearPolitics. Another 55% disapprove. Dallas Morning News polling published last month suggests that roughly the same percentage of Texans approve and disapprove of Biden. Texas Republicans outperform Democrats as well when respondents are asked who they trust more to handle the pandemic, education, and race when the party nationwide has an almost 4-point advantage over Democrats on a generic congressional ballot.
Texas Democrats have “general good feelings” toward Biden, countered in-state party strategist Matt Angle. There was a “lot less trepidation” concerning the president than his predecessors Barack Obama in 2010 and Bill Clinton in 1994, he said.
Simultaneously, neither Democrats nor Republicans benefit from being “an extension of national party leaders or activists,” Angle added.
“Frankly, I don’t like that some Democrats in safe districts are touting Bernie’s Our Revolution PAC and bringing in AOC along with other far-left national Democrats,” he said. “Just [Monday] morning, Bernie acolyte Jasmine Crockett announced an endorsement from Elizabeth Warren in safe Dallas-based District 30.”
“Well-meaning” but “far-out-of-the-mainstream Democrats … offend the sensibilities of fair-minded Texas voters,” Angle argued.
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“When Democrats shine a light on far-left, out-of-state liberals like Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Elizabeth Warren, they play into GOP hands,” he said. “It does little to help their own campaigns. However, it does great damage to Democrats trying to beat Republicans in competitive races.”
