Thirty six Texas Democrats \u2014 including a congressional candidate, a former Texas House member and former party staffers \u2014are urging Kendall Scudder to forgo reelection as chair of the Texas Democratic Party, citing operational failures and a \u201chostile work environment\u201d fostered by his leadership over the past year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seen a Texas Democratic Party that makes bold promises to voters and candidates, yet cannot answer basic questions about strategy,\u201d reads the open letter<\/a>, which continues to garner signatures. \u201cA Party that speaks of urgency but fails to act on it. A Party that asks for trust and money it has not earned.\u201d<\/p>\n With \u201curgency and deep frustration,\u201d the signers called on Scudder to step aside.<\/p>\n \u201cMr. Scudder, the Texas Democratic Party cannot afford another four years of operational failure,\u201d the letter says.<\/p>\n The letter, signed by a substantial contingent of party insiders, reflects a persistent level of discontent among Texas Democrats after changes made by Scudder, including decentralizing the party\u2019s base from Austin and overhauling staff positions, threw the party into a state of upheaval<\/a> last fall. <\/p>\n Among the signers of the letter are the Rev. Frederick Haynes III, the likely successor to U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a> in Texas\u2019 30th Congressional District, and former state Rep. Mark Stiles, who represented East Texas from 1983-99. Eleven former staffers were identified only by their vacated TDP position and one signed as a House \u201cpolitical professional\u201d for fear of professional or legal repercussions. The Texas Tribune verified the identities of the former staffers.<\/p>\n The open letter comes as Democrats look to November as a prime opportunity to make major gains all over the ballot, with massive turnout in last month\u2019s primary election and favorable political tailwinds nationwide boosting Democratic energy and optimism.<\/p>\n Scudder did not provide an on-the-record statement in response to requests from the Tribune. He did not respond to two text messages and a call Friday seeking comment. <\/p>\n Some Texas Democrats defended Scudder\u2019s leadership, calling him accessible and pointing to positive developments, including a wider party presence across the state and paying off a $500,000 party debt that he inherited.<\/p>\n \u201cThe primary speaks for itself,\u201d said Angel Viator Smith, chair of the TDP\u2019s Finance Committee, pointing to Democratic turnout exceeding Republican turnout. <\/p>\n Scudder was elected chair by the party\u2019s governing board in March 2025 after the previous leader, Gilberto Hinojosa, resigned following Democrats\u2019 blowout losses in 2024. Texas Democrats will select a chair for a four-year term at the party\u2019s convention in June. The deadline for candidates to file to run is April 24. Scudder has not yet filed<\/a> for reelection.<\/p>\n The letter covers a range of concerns with Scudder\u2019s leadership, arguing the TDP failed to protect Democratic voters\u2019 ability to cast ballots on election day and to maintain an up-to-date voter file that supports campaign outreach. <\/p>\n Hundreds of voters were turned away from the polls<\/a> March 3 in Dallas and Williamson counties, unaware that the county Republican parties months prior had forced a switch<\/a> to precinct-based voting for both Republican and Democratic voters.<\/p>\n Despite knowing about the change for months, the letter reads, the TDP failed to adequately prepare voters and instead \u201cforced our Party into reactive damage control.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is not responsible stewardship of our Party. It is mismanagement with consequences that will be felt well beyond a single election cycle,\u201d the letter reads. \u201cTexas Democrats deserve a leader that anticipates threats, prepares exhaustively and executes on program. Your leadership has not met that standard.\u201d<\/p>\n Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Kardal Coleman said it was hard to predict how chaotic the switch to precinct-level voting would be. The county and state Democratic parties, he said, worked together before election day to game out what the change would look like, and on the March 3 primary to help voters find their assigned polling sites. Coleman added that the county party had successfully lobbied the Dallas County Commissioners Court to spend $1 million on a campaign to educate voters about the change.<\/p>\n Coleman said he thought Scudder was \u201cworking around the clock,\u201d and that he had not seen a party chair who had \u201cput in as many hours to be one, accessible, but also responsive to the needs of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been an amazing surrogate for the issues and the platform that our party wants to put forward,\u201d Coleman said.<\/p>\n The letter also highlighted the state party\u2019s failure to maintain an up-to-date voter file, which campaigns rely on to shape voter outreach. The letter cited \u201clittle evidence of sustained public pressure on the Texas Secretary of State or proactive collaboration with Democratic counties\u201d to ensure accurate voter data and precinct maps.<\/p>\n In an interview last month, TDP Executive Director Terri Burke said the party\u2019s voter file was out of date because the Texas secretary of state\u2019s office had provided incomplete voter lists. The party met with the agency to address problems it saw in the data, but \u201cmost of this is totally outside our control,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Ethan Lipka, the party\u2019s former data director who left in early February, added county election administrators across the state had faced problems uploading data to the secretary of state.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot to criticize the TDP over, but I think this is a really clear case where the SOS failed,\u201d he told the Tribune.<\/p>\n The letter also described \u201cconcerning employer practices that stand in direct violation of our Party\u2019s values,\u201d claiming former staffers spoke of \u201cbeing exposed to racism and a hostile work environment, which stripped away core responsibilities from staffers, deliberate misreporting of debt and being forced out and replaced by consultants.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cParty leadership has demonstrated a willingness to consolidate power at all costs, actively working to exclude or replace those who offer alternative approaches,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n Viator Smith, the party\u2019s finance committee chair, argued that the letter\u2019s concerns would not be solved by a change in leadership. <\/p>\n \u201cThe fact of the matter is that Kendall has been across the entire state, energizing the base across the entire state,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the momentum that is being built, the positive reaction to decentralization and the massive primary turnout \u2014 I don\u2019t understand why we wouldn\u2019t continue with this leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n Renzo Downey contributed reporting.<\/p>\n Disclosure: Texas secretary of state has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thirty six Texas Democrats \u2014 including a congressional candidate, a former Texas House member and former party staffers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[287,1564,27,29,293,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-254789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-politics","9":"tag-state-government","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-legislature","13":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}