If Dems stay out of the culture wars, then they got a chance. Pound the GOP on their lack of keeping up with the growth. Schools and transportation should be the focus, healthcare should be secondary unfortunately unless you have a great plan that would fly in Texas.
usually i'd say lol no chance, especially since this one's an actual progressive, but if there's any year the tide could turn it's 2018...you've got the perfect storm of (1) a strong likable candidate who makes cruz look even worse than he does on his own and (2) people are motivated AF to vote against trump, especially women and minorities. Beto has an INSANE amount of volunteers on the ground and it's only january. who knows what crazy shtt happens over the next 9 months.
The only chance he has is if someone hacks the voting system and puts him in the (R) category instead of the (D) category. Too many voters now days just order the extra value meal instead of choosing what is actually best on a piece by piece basis.
While I am old enough to have voted for Ann Richards and Lloyd Bentsen, I'm not optimistic I'll see another Democrat elected Governor or Senator again in my lifetime. I sincerely hope I'm wrong.
If enough rural voters are disgusted that they won't show up to the polls, and enough voters in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and SA show up to the polls because they hate Trump, then he might have a shot.
Same here. I remember seeing Ann around Austin back in the day, especially at Las Manitas on Congress for breakfast. I'm more optimistic than you are, perhaps. I think that if Democrats turn out in force, and can get independents to quit thinking there's no reason to vote because the GOP's gonna win anyway, then sure. We can win a statewide office. Cruz is vulnerable, in my opinion. He's representing himself, not Texas. It would be a stunning upset, but not impossible. Cruz's base of support is, in the main, a minority of extremists, in my opinion, and trump is very busy frightening people. Maybe a lot of those frightened people will actually get out and vote.
It'll be hard but just remember Republicans felt that way until John Tower finally won. Democrats are at least trying this time around. That's most of the battle. Republicans ran themselves into walls for decades trying to break through and it finally happened. Texas's real problem is its size. It makes getting name recognition incredibly difficult so people just default back to party ID. Now I'm not optimistic enough to suggest this will happen any time soon but inevitably it will. At some point, the Republican Party will nominate a monumentally bad candidate and Democrats will nominate an above average candidate. But most importantly, Democrats have to keep trying. Don't turn into the other Southern states that can barely find candidates to run for statewide office.
To me, it's not about winning but the precinct by precinct map. It will be very interesting to see that this time around. How many precincts/districts/counties/whatever can Beto carry? Will he make some inroads in the suburbs and even exurbs? Maybe in the borderlands?
https://poll.qu.edu/texas/release-detail?ReleaseID=2536 Beto now trails 47-44 according to the latest Quinnpac poll
Bless you, @Deckard simply for mentioning this restaurant and bringing back a flood of very good memories... at least a few with folks that are no longer around. Loved that place...