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AUSTIN, Tx., December 19, 2025: According to The Texas Tribune<\/a>, Texas Democrats have fielded candidates \u201cin every state and federal race\u201d in the 2026 elections for \u201cthe first time in modern state history.\u201d El Paso voters, meanwhile, have a solid slate<\/a> of Democrats running for most seats, except for County Commissioner 4, County Judge, Texas House 74, 75 & 79, and both congressional seats.<\/p>\n The Tribune credits Beto O\u2019Rourke as one of the people behind the recruiting efforts to fill Texas ballots with Democratic Party contenders. The push to fill every ballot with Democrats is to ensure that \u201cno Republican gets a free ride in Texas,\u201d Texas Democratic Chair Kendall Scudder told the Tribune. Democrats have not won a statewide office since 1994. But that has not stopped some from hoping<\/a> 2026 is the year that Texas turns blue.<\/p>\n The idea that Texas can turn blue in 2026 is bolstered by recent wins by Democrats like Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and Eileen Higgins<\/a>. Although the recent Democrat wins have alarmed<\/a> the Republicans, there is an underlining divide among the Democrats that weakens their chances for turning Texas blue next year.<\/p>\n Most of the recent Democrat ballot wins are from younger progressives<\/a> in the party challenging the \u201cold guard\u201d Democratic Party leadership who want to mold the party leadership along the lines of up-and-coming social Democrats.<\/p>\n On the surface, \u201cthe strategy for turning Texas blue\u201d by maximizing<\/a> \u201cDemocratic turnout\u201d that can help \u201cflip the state\u201d ignores that for it to work, the Democrats need to work cohesively towards that goal. Infighting among the old guard and the younger progressives distracts from that goal.<\/p>\n Can the two Democrat factions agree on the common goal and work together remains an unanswered question today.<\/p>\n The Cannon Fodder for the \u201cTrickle-Up\u201d Effect the Democrats Are Banking On<\/p>\n The Democrats are banking on the \u201ctrickle-up\u201d effect that O\u2019Rourke benefited from in 2018 to come close to unseating Ted Cruz. The effect relies on bottom ballot Democrats running to bolster Democrat turnout to help up-ballot Democrats in their races.<\/p>\n But Democrats experience a higher rate of roll-off<\/a> voters, voters who skip down-ballot races, than their Republican counterparts suggesting that the strategy of down-ballot candidates mobilizing voters is not likely to be effective.<\/p>\n If the Democrats succeed in mobilizing Democrats to the polls at the expense of down ballot Democrats, doesn\u2019t the plan depend on down-ballot Democrats willing to be cannon fodder for their better-healed Democrats at the top of the ballot? Better yet, are the younger progressive Democrats willing to allow themselves to be the cannon fodder for the good of the party?<\/p>\n Or will they chart their own course like Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a> (D-TX-30) is doing in her race for Texas senator? Her Senate candidacy complicates the election calculus for the Democrat\u2019s wish to turn Texas blue because she is ignoring the party\u2019s need to keep her in play at the House.<\/p>\n Therein lies the problem for the Democrats\u2019 plan to turn Texas blue next year. Recent Democratic candidates\u2019 wins are mostly by young progressives, yet the turn Texas blue plan depends on them being used to bolster voter turn out among the Democrats. Would they be willing to do so is the open question today.<\/p>\n However, the proponents of the plan to turn Texas blue have already invested millions in the plan.<\/p>\n Former O\u2019Rourke campaign team members<\/a> have come together under the Texas Majority PAC and raised a little over $2 million, mostly from George Soros to turn Texas blue.<\/p>\n The Texas Majority PAC<\/a> was founded in 2022 with the stated goal \u201cto permanently flip Texas blue.\u201d Their analysis suggest that it will take \u201c1 million new Democrats to flip Texas permanently by 2032.\u201d<\/p>\n In other words, the PAC argues that 1 million new voters must register to vote and cast ballots in Texas elections to turn Texas blue.<\/p>\n To do so, they organized \u201clarge-scale voter turn out programs\u201d in nine Texas counties, including El Paso. The PAC credits O\u2019Rourke and takes credit for putting Democratic candidates in the 2026 ballots.<\/p>\n But like the lack of cohesion among the progressive younger Democrats and the party\u2019s leadership, the PAC faces hostile responses<\/a> from traditional party chapters in several Texas counties, including the Harris County Democratic Party who refused to cede control as the PAC required.<\/p>\n The underlining point of contention is about who controls the voter data \u2013 the party, the PAC or some other group. Party officials are weary of the PAC and its motives. They released a report on February suggested that the PAC\u2019s use of paid canvassers was leading to skewed canvassing results showing success where one may not have existed. According to the report, \u201cfinancial incentives\u201d rather than volunteer passion left \u201cdoubt on the contacts that are supposedly happening.\u201d (emphasis in original)<\/p>\n Party officials later clarified that their report did not intend to single out the PAC, but rather that their analysis of voter canvassing used the PAC to illustrate their concerns. Nonethless, the initial report and the corrected report signals that there is no cohesion between party officials, the PAC and the up-and-coming young progressives that have led to Democrats winning in recent elections.<\/p>\n At the end of the day, the PAC\u2019s plan to turn Texas blue has floundered and the ongoing disconnect within the Democratic Party, its leadership and the younger party progressives, not to mention the mistrust in the PAC by other party groups only ensures that turning Texas blue in 2026 is untenable as long as the various Democratic Party groups are unable to reconcile their difference and work cohesively together.<\/p>\n As for El Paso, there is some evidence that Veronica Escobar is weaker<\/a> than before but the calculus for a Republican upset of Escobar is just not there in this election cycle. This is because Escobar doesn\u2019t need to run in the primary, while the political fallout between the Republicans in their primary can lead to talking points for Escobar to use in November. Escobar can simply build up her profile between now and November with stories of her accomplishments through the news media. Adding to the weakening of the Republican candidates in El Paso is the weakening economy that the Trump administration unsuccessfully tried to spin in his latest television broadcast.<\/p>\n With a low approval rating of 36%<\/a> in how Donald Trump has handled the economy, El Paso\u2019s Republicans cannot depend on Trump for attracting El Paso\u2019s voters to the Republican side in November. American voters vote on how they perceive the economy. Unless the economy drastically changes during the first quarter next year, the voters are likely to place the blame<\/a> on the Republicans weakening any chances that El Paso\u2019s voters would vote for a Republican candidate to replace Escobar, or in the County Judge\u2019s race.<\/p>\n Like Us and Follow Us On Our Social Media!<\/p>\n Visited 4 times, 4 visit(s) today<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Tx., December 19, 2025: According to The Texas Tribune, Texas Democrats have fielded candidates \u201cin every state…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6505,138,140,139,3485,10327,7883,43985,2569],"class_list":{"0":"post-94159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-el-paso","8":"tag-beto-orourke","9":"tag-el-paso","10":"tag-el-paso-headlines","11":"tag-el-paso-news","12":"tag-elections-2026","13":"tag-george-soros","14":"tag-ted-cruz","15":"tag-texas-majority-pac","16":"tag-veronica-escobar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94159","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=94159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/fund_jurnlist_lgad_1.png\")
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