Maricela Alvarado and Sandra Prince listen to speakers during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi on Friday, June 26, 2026.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
CORPUS CHRISTI — The Texas Democrats assembled for their three-day convention that ended Saturday in this Coastal Bend city sought to redefine the meaning of the politics of inclusion.
They embraced a platform that aggressively reached out to rural Texans, blue-color laborers, small business owners and military veterans, while acknowledging more must be done to protect the nation’s southern border and the property of landowners who live and work near the Rio Grande. Those issues can no longer be ceded to the Republicans, several delegates, candidate and officeholders said, especially in an economy that they say promotes the consolidation of wealth while millions of Texas struggle to make ends meet.
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Here are the key takeaways:
Looking to lure Republican voters
In their effort to finally break a losing streak in statewide elections stretching to the mid-1990s, Democrats pledged to expand their party’s base without turning their backs on the progressive causes and the marginalized communities that have long defined the modern Texas Democratic Party.
To many, that means working to win over rural voters.
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“Progressive populism actually started in rural Texas,” said North Texas delegate Lon Burnam, who was considered the Legislature’s most liberal member during his nine terms as a state representative.
Texas Democrats came to Corpus Christi feeling the political wind at their backs. Polling shows their candidate for U.S. Senate, state Rep. James Talarico of Austin, running even or slightly ahead of his general election opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton. Some surveys also put gubernatorial hopeful Gina Hinojosa and other down-ballot statewide candidates within single digits of the better-known Republicans they want to topple.
This comes amid a sputtering national economy and an electorate growing increasingly frustrated with the policies of Republican President Donald Trump heading into the final five months of the 2026 midterm campaign.
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Adrian Martinez, staffing the Small Business Caucus booth in the exhibit hall of the Hilliard Center, said Trump’s tariff policy and the rising price of motor fuel is pushing fledgling entrepreneurs to give Democrats a second look.
“Everybody is suffering the same thing,” said Martinez, who lives in Bexar County. “Most small business are mom and pops. They need help. But they are not being represented in things that matter.”
Brenda Hefferman, a retired elementary school principal, and her also-retired daughter Heather Hefferman, described themselves as “the blue dot” in the ruby-red Texas Hill Country. But, they said the dots around them are getting bigger and bluer.
“There are a lot more of us than we thought, and they don’t have to be scared to admit they’re Democrats,” said Heather Hefferman, who spent 30 years teaching American children abroad before settling in Marble Falls where she is a Democratic precinct chairwoman. “They are slowly coming around. The big ‘Trump’ flags that we see outside the big farms and ranches are slowly disappearing.”
Karen Wilkerson of Tyler, who chairs the Texas Rural Caucus, said the proliferation of data centers that tap into the electric grid and limited water supplies has even conservative Texans concerned.
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“They’re afraid that their good-old-boy Republicans are going to sell them out,” Wilkerson said.
Talarico working to mend fences
As the party writ large spent much of the convention extolling the virtues of unity and base-broadening, its most prominent figure was redoubling efforts to ensure that one of the party’s most loyal voting blocs stays in his corner and mobilized through the final months of the midterm cycle.
Talarico bounced from caucus to caucus inside the convention center on Friday, delivering a version of his standard stump speech. But the Democratic Black Caucus was personalized, seeking to assuage any lingering hurt feelings from his primary victory over Dallas Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, who was considered one of the fastest-rising Black Democrats in Texas.
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“For too long, let’s just be very honest, the Democratic Party has a troubling history of taking Black voters for granted,” Talarico said. “And I am committing to you to not make those mistakes. I am committed to working with the members of this caucus. To show up for work, invest in and fight for the votes of every Black Texan.”
State Rep. Ron Reynolds of Houston, who presided over the caucus meeting, said in an interview that Talarico’s remarks went a long way toward mending any broken fences.
“He still has to earn those votes,” Reynolds, who had been a Crockett supporter during the primary, later told Hearst Newspapers. Asked if Talarico had earned his vote, Reynolds replied yes: “I was Team Crockett, but I’m now Team Talarico.”
Elgie Clayton, a 78-year-old Vietnam veteran from the North Texas town of Sulphur Springs, was among the standing-room-only crowd in the Democratic Black Caucus when Talarico spoke. When Talarico finished his remarks, Clayton made a beeline for him even as the senatorial nominee’s security team was rushing to his side.
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In an interview, Clayton said he had supported Crockett in the primary. He said he told Talarico it was up to him to not only earn the votes of Black Democrats, but to also motivate them to organize and vote.
“We are a majority-minority state, and it’s supposed to look like it,” Clayton said. “He still has a lot of work to do, but he can do it. He is the person to lead us forward, but if we don’t get out and vote, we’re going to lose. And then all of those rights we fought for will be gone.”
Focusing on pocketbook issues
Hinojosa, a state representative from Austin running against Gov. Greg Abbott, used her convention address to both energize and lightly chastise her fellow Democrats.
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“I will say it plainly, because somebody in our party has to,” she told the delegates. “We’ve lost our way because of a corrupt political system where corporate actors and lobbyists have unlimited money to influence politicians. In both parties.”
Hinojosa said Democrats “must own our failure to name it and fight it.”
“Somewhere along the way, we left the kitchen table behind,” she said. “Friends, that is on us.”
Republicans, meanwhile, sought to steal some of the spotlight with some counter-programming. Four GOP lawmakers at a hotel a few blocks from the convention center called the other party as too liberal during a press conference.
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Later in an interview, Republican state Rep. Todd Hunter of Corpus Christi acknowledged that his party so far has spent less time than Democrats discussing so-called pocketbook issues ahead of the elections.
“We are looking at property tax relief that helps free up a lot of money,” Hunter said. “We’re going to do everything we can to make everything affordable … People have got to be able to live and afford, and I think you’re going to see us pushing those measures.”
National Democrats descend on Texas
The convention provided a showcase for a handful of national Democrats thought to be eyeing a run for the 2028 presidential nomination. Among them were Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who spoke during a luncheon that was closed to press, and U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who addressed the delegates later in the day.
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“Texas Democrats are showing America right now what is possible if we stand up and do not give up hope,” Booker said. “When they elect James Talarico to the United States Senate they won’t just take Texas higher they will take America higher.”
Closing the convention was U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who delivered a fiery defense of progressivism that drew boisterous and sustained cheers from the delegates. He promised that if Democrats take Congress in November, they will work to block Trump’s agenda, from the war in Iran to reductions in social services and tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
“You don’t take food out of the mouths of hungry children to give tax cuts to billionaires,” Sanders said.
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But Democrats must do more than point out Republican shortcomings to achieve success at the polls, he said.
“It’s not enough to be against Trump,” Sanders said. “They (voters) want to know what the Democratic Party stands for and what the Democratic Party is going to do to improve their lives.”