For years, Democrats have insisted that they are on the verge of turning Texas blue. With Democratic state legislators fleeing the state, it seems they have finally given up on their dream.
To understand why Texas Democrats ran away to Washington, D.C., to turn themselves into props for the national Democratic Party, you need only look at November 2020. Fresh off the heels of Beto O’Rourke’s narrow loss to Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, the dream of a “blue Texas” seemed near. But their sugar high was short-lived.
Democrats were embarrassed across the state in 2020. They didn’t pick up a single House seat, and GOP Sen. John Cornyn cruised to victory. Despite high expectations for a legislative takeover, Democrats managed to flip just one seat in the state Senate on net, none in the state House.
Now, it appears they have surrendered the state entirely, literally abandoning it and their jobs to go “strategize” with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Vice President Kamala Harris. Texas Democrats have decided that their job is not to legislate in Texas, but to stump for the For the People Act, the Democratic power grab that would overrule state laws on voter ID and other issues.
We are at the U.S. Capitol today doing the job we were elected to do, fighting for our constituents’ constitutional right to vote in free & fair elections. We need federal action in the fight for our right to vote. We need the #ForthePeopleAct. #txlege pic.twitter.com/gJIN4fPf0C
— Ann Johnson (@VoteAnnJohnson) July 13, 2021
Surely, nothing is more endearing to Texans than politicians funded by taxpayer dollars, skipping out on their jobs to demand Washington overrule their own state laws.
Texas Democrats aren’t just acknowledging that they are powerless as a result of their own election failures. They are giving up any real sense of competitiveness by admitting that all they can do is run from their jobs and post incredibly cringeworthy tweets in exchange for having a minimal effect in persuading West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and Arizona Sen. Krysten Sinema to jettison the filibuster.
When your genius strategy can’t even win over Chris Cuomo, you aren’t going to win over Manchin.
Chris Cuomo even pressed Texas Dems for calling for the federal filibuster to be nuked while essentially using the same tool themselves.
They responded by whining about how “exhausted” they are. Give me a break. pic.twitter.com/ySIl7BENyG
— Chris Martin (@chrisjdmartin) July 13, 2021
This is nothing more than Texas Democrats accepting that “blue Texas” is not their destiny. Their reliance on demographic change has failed because it turns out that voting patterns are not hardwired into people based on their race. They are losing Hispanic votes and now admitting that they have peaked. They are nothing more than performative opposition, and that their only use now is as a stepping stool for Schumer’s agenda.
That, or they really think this gambit is actually going to work. But if you thought that the natural winds of the 2022 midterm elections were going to favor Republicans before, just wait until Texas Democrats have to face voters in the state they fled in order to become the pawns of liberals from New York City and California. That is if they decide to end their Washington vacation before the next election.
