Texas Is Winnable. Beto’s The Candidate To Do It.

Just as Stacey Abrams’ 2018 Georgia gubernatorial campaign laid the foundation for the transformation of US politics in 2020-2011, Beto O’Rourke’s candidacy for Texas governorate in 2022 has the potential to bring about similar long-term revolutionary changes in American politics and public order priorities in the decades to come.

When I started raising money for Stacey 10 years ago, little we knew her work was going to produce any result Cut US child poverty in half, remove every single dangerous lead pipe that is poisoning our nation’s drinking water and ousting a white nationalist fascist from the White House who has tried to destroy democracy itself. But all of these things happened this year. None of them would have been possible without the creation of a civic engagement and voter mobilization machine in Georgia that could mobilize millions of colored voters and flip the two seats in the US Senate that gave the Democrats control of the Senate eleven months ago. The Georgia fight isn’t over yet, and Stacey’s announcement last week that it did she is running again for governor is one of the most hopeful developments in US politics through 2022.

With Beto running for governor next year, the potential for permanent reshaping of the national political landscape is enormous. By mimicking the Georgia model of getting organized everywhere and making massive investments in increasing the Democratic turnout, Beto can not only win the office in 2022 – he can transform Texas and, by extension, American politics for the accelerate the coming decades.

The strategic importance of the south and southwest

The states of the South and Southwest are the linchpins of America’s progressive political revolution. This is the land of enslaved black people picked the white cotton that made white people rich. It is the area that once belonged to Mexico until it was captured in a violent and bloody war. And it’s true: both have some of the most conservative politicians and politicians in the country. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp and Texas Governor Greg Abbot are ideological descendants of those who defended slavery and racial segregation. The ugly truth is that millions of people enthusiastically embrace this policy of white nationalist fear and resentment.

Much less appreciated is the fact that these states are also full of colored people (as well as a significant minority of progressive whites). Georgia is on the verge of becoming a “majority minority state” as the proportion of whites has only shrunk to 50.06 percent of the population. In Texas, 61 percent of the population are colored; there are as many Latinos, 39 percent, as whites in the state.

Stacey Abrams understood that building a nationwide turnout could transform Georgia’s politics – and turn the national balance of power on its head. Georgia has shown the way and opened the door to a new and better political era. Texas can now pull the door off its hinges, bury the right wing movement that wants America back white, and usher in an era of greater justice and equality for the whole country. As Texas turns blue in the years to come, it may flip its Senate seats and create a Texas-sized hole in the electoral math necessary for any Republican aspiring to the White House.

Beto can win

So that we understand each other. This is not just about laying the foundation for long-term profits for the next several years by trying the old college attempt. Beto can absolutely win, and he is uniquely positioned to do so because of the assets he built during his 2018 Senate campaign.

The idea that Texas is a “red state” is wrong. It is true that the People who cast ballots In the most recent elections, the Republicans received broad support, albeit with decreasing margins, as the composition of the population of the state as a whole tends to be democratic. (I wrote about this January when I said Texas was the next Georgia.) Latinos and African Americans now make up the majority of the state’s population, and the popular perception of Texas as a place mostly used by white men in Stetson- Clothing is peopled is basically anachronistic. When you think of Texas, now is the time to think of Selena, Beyoncé, and Megan Thee Stallion. These Texas born and raised cultural icons came from the communities that are increasingly defining the state.

The electorate in 2022 will be even cheaper than it was four years ago when Beto first ran nationwide and received just 214,921 votes for victory. Nearly 300,000 black people in Texas turn 18 each year, with 33 new voters coming every hour. Until the vote in November 2022, 1.2 million more young Texans of Color will be eligible to vote than four years ago.

In addition to all of the new colored voters, there are literally millions of previously ignored and unengaged colored people who voted off in the last election. In 2018, 5.4 million colored people did not vote. What we have learned in Georgia is that victory depends on a large turnout, and a large turnout requires a strong organizational infrastructure that works to find and mobilize every possible supporter.

That is the second benefit that contributes to Beto’s improved prospects.

One of the hallmarks of Beto’s 2018 candidacy was a strong emphasis on grassroots, hyper-local voter engagement and mobilization. This gives him both a valuable network of existing relationships and a literal roadmap to victory: He drove to all 254 counties in the state in 2017 and ’18 and was probably the only candidate to do so. In the intervening years, Beto has taken another page from the Abrams playbook in support of ongoing civic engagements and engaging with voter companies like the. teamed up Texas Organization Project. The organization has also kept his own network alive Driven by peoplewhich has helped enroll 200,000 people since late 2019.

Beto kicked off the gubernatorial campaign in November by focusing on the largely Latin American and heavily neglected Rio Grande Valley (where Abbott has nurtured voters and cemented its image for years) and signaled that appearing everywhere will again be the basis of his campaign strategy.

The third pillar of power that Beto has for him is money. Texas is a huge state, so campaigning there is expensive. Abbott spent $ 85 million in 2018. More than a year before the election, he has amassed a war chest of $ 55 million.

Beto is literally one of the few people in the country with a proven fundraising network capable of rivaling the Republican financial juggernaut. He raised $ 80 million in his 2018 campaign, and he still has those relationships, connections, and contact information. The continued passion of Beto’s supporters was evident in the form of an impressive first fundraising day in November, on which he raised more than $ 2 million. Contrary to what usually happens in Texas, the Republican standard-bearer will not be able to massively outdo the Democrats with Beto at the helm.

Texas is winnable. When it turns blue, the lives of the 29 million people who live there will quickly improve – and the millions more who like me have families in the state. The implications for such a victory are even greater. If 2021 has proven anything, then mobilizing colored voters in the South and Southwest is the progressive revolution we need.

Texas Is Winnable. Beto’s the Candidate to Do It.

The strategic importance of the south and southwest

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