Democrats have been desperately trying to turn Texas blue for decades now. They have thrown about every candidate possible at every conceivable statewide position, and still managed to get embarrassed just about every time. A Democrats has not won a statewide elected position since 1992, and it really has not even been close.
Part of why Democrats love an open border is to sneak illegal voters into Texas and hopefully turn it blue, but even that has not worked. Their most valiant effort was Robert Francis O'Rourke, aka Beto, who ran against Senator Ted Cruz in 2018. Beto traveled to every single county in one of the largest grassroots fundraisers ever, and still did not really land a punch on Cruz. So, the Democrats remain desperate, and now have new ideas.
An Obama-backed Democrat redistricting group has announced it is focusing on three Texas Supreme Court seats and will vie to turn those blue. Brad Johnson of the Texan says this is a long con essentially, with long term sights on the 2031 redistricting cycle.
"The strategy is to try and get ahead of that...they want to get some of their allies on the court and try to wreak havoc on the Republican redistricting maps that get released," he says.
The group is called the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC) and is led by former Obama U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. They have had success in this line of work too. In 2023 in Wisconsin, they achieved a pro-democracy majority on that state's high court, and immediately issues new redistricting rules.
As Texas is one of 24 states that elect their Supreme Court seats, it makes it an easy target for them. But even all this effort, and the ungodly amount of money they are sure to pump into it, it may not matter once again.
"They have not even held the legislature in two decades...Texas is not close to turning blue at the moment. It is not even overwhelmingly Republican, it is somewhat of a middle ground, and Republicans have still held virtually everything," he says. "They seem poised to continue that."
Best-case scenario for the Democrats, they flip all three of those sets, held by Republicans. They then get to hammer down on the redistricting maps, and draw the state blue, so to speak. But even all of that would just barely get them started.
"This could be a very early beginning to the foundation they would have to set in order to change things in the state," says Johnson.
According to the Texas Ethics Commission, the NDRC's account totals $286,000. The group's PAC spent $17,000 on their Wisconsin fight.
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