Texas is the chief target and big electoral prize for America’s liberal progressives. They have been spending millions of dollars to set up a ground game in the Lone Star State with an eye on flipping it from red to blue. If they win there, small-government conservatives shouldn’t expect to see serious electoral victories for decades to come.
The good news: There’s a movement afoot to turn back the gathering horde.
In TheBlaze Magazine’s June cover story, Mike Opelka digs into why Texas is facing serious threats from leftists, who the major players are, what their tactics are, where their money comes from and — most importantly — what conservatives can do about it.
The following excerpts are taken from the Blaze magazine about Flipping Texas.
It is not exactly a secret that the state of Texas, with its 38 Electoral College votes, has a target on its back.
After decades of Texas being considered a solid state for Republican presidential candidates, its political future is in question. Moreover, efforts surrounding the upcoming 2014 midterm elections—and even greater emphasis on 2016—show signs of possible weakening in the base that conservatives have thought of as reliably Republican.
Leftists plotting to turn the Lone Star from Republican red to Democratic blue are spending a lot of money to try to accomplish this lofty goal.
The reasons for focusing on “turning Texas” are obvious. It’s all about Electoral College math, and the calculations can be done by a second grader. Of the 270 votes needed to elect a president, if a few states with very large populations can be considered a “lock” for either party, it gives that party a large advantage before the actual votes are counted.
Consider the big states that default to the Democrats and the electoral votes they carry: California, 55 electoral votes; New York, 29; and Illinois, 20.
These three states alone going Democratic in a presidential election would give that ticket an instant 104 electoral-vote head start.
However, Democrats are also looking at swing states like Ohio with 18 electoral votes, Pennsylvania with 20 and Florida with 29 as strong possibilities for wins in 2016. That would put another 67 votes in the Democratic column, pushing the total to 171 expected electoral votes before a single ballot is cast.
Add Texas and its 38 electoral votes into the mix, and with just seven states, Democrats would start the 2016 election with 209 of the necessary 270 votes. The Left sees Texas as the key to an almost permanent, bulletproof electoral majority.
ALL ABOUT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING
The Democrats have assembled an all-star team of fundraisers, organizers and promoters, and they have been operating in Texas for more than a year. Reflecting the importance of the Right/Left fight for the Lone Star State, these activists have named themselves Battleground Texas.
The executive staff leading Battleground Texas also has an Organizing for Action (formerly Organizing for America; aka the Obama campaign) pedigree. A review of the backgrounds of 14 executives listed on the group’s website shows that 11 have worked for OFA, the DNC, the White House and the State Department. Additionally, six of the Battleground Texas team leaders held key posts for OFA in swing states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Florida) during the 2012 election.
At the very top of the Battleground Texas team is Executive Director Jenn Brown, a seasoned campaign organizer. In the 2012 election cycle, Brown led 600 field staff members at the 130 field offices that OFA operated in Ohio alone.
Additionally, like OFA, Battleground Texas is quite active in the digital world. The online operation (website development, social media operations and online fundraising) is also under the leadership of an experienced veteran. Digital Director Christina Gomez worked for the DNC in 2012 as the party’s senior digital strategist.
Battleground Texas workers and volunteers have fanned out across the state and are working every single day to locate and register voters. Their primary focus is to find and connect with unregistered Hispanic and young voters. According to an estimate from the group, there are potentially 5 million new voters in the Lone Star State. Enrolling and accessing these voters would be key to changing Texas from red to purple and eventually to a deep Democratic blue.
THE DAVIS MONEY MACHINE
Texas Sen. Wendy Davis listens during an education roundtable meeting in Arlington, Texas, Thursday, Jan. 9, 2014. Davis, the presumptive Democratic nominee for Texas governor, unveiled education proposals at the North Texas meeting. (AP Photo/LM Otero) AP Photo/LM Otero
The Texas governor’s race between Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis and Republican Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is expected to be an expensive one. When the race wraps up later this year, campaign spending could total $50 million.
When the Davis and Abbott camps released fundraising data in January, Davis had pulled in more than $12 million in the last six months of 2013, compared to Abbot’s $11.5 million.
To understand how serious the progressive Left is about fundraising, growing their donor base and playing big in Texas, note that the Davis money came from three different committees:
**Wendy R. Davis for Governor, Inc. (Davis’ SPAC): $4,172,778;
**Wendy R. Davis Candidate/Officeholder (set up before she announced, these funds can be transferred to any campaign she’s in): $4,555,228; and
**Texas Victory Committee, Inc. (a joint effort between Davis and Battleground Texas): $3,501,513.
Abbott has just one committee: Texans for Greg Abbott.
The first two weeks of January brought a renewed push for Abbott’s campaign as the Texas attorney general outraised Davis $3.5 million to $930,000. And as this article goes to press, Abbott’s cash-on-hand was around $30 million, while Davis is reporting between $18 million and $20 million in the bank. Though Abbott has a definite advantage, the idea that the Democratic candidate who stands little chance of winning can raise this type of money shows the ground game the Left is building. […]
Despite the massive head start that Battleground Texas has enjoyed, there is little evidence that the voter registration push (or the fundraising) will pay off in 2014. Based on current polling data, it appears that Republicans will likely keep control of the governor’s mansion as Abbott enjoys a strong lead over Davis. …
But 2014 is not the ultimate prize for Battleground Texas. The Democrats have invested in their network of field offices and embedded operatives on college campuses and the technical support from the DNC and OFA with eyes on the 2016 presidential, congressional and statehouse races—and beyond.
Rep. Gohmert, a Texan charged with representing the people on this important issue, told TheBlaze his thoughts about the push by Democrats to flip his state from red to blue. And he was quite clear in his opinion:
