Texas Democrat Party Gathers in Dallas to Ignore Rural Texans Again

DALLAS – "All the candidates (for Texas Democratic Party Chair) agree that Democrats do not need to win rural Texas but cut more into Republicans’ wide margins there." – Texas Tribune

The Texas Democrat Party kicks off its biennial state convention in Dallas Thursday with its sites clearly on winning statewide offices in November and its ammunition the rallying cries against the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, for gun control, open borders and the rest of the Biden agenda.  

The Texas Tribune is reporting Texas Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa is facing two challengers for reelection at the party’s convention this weekend, a race that is serving as a referendum on Democrats’ pace of progress in Texas.  The party has been unable to win a statewide office since 1994. 

Hinojosa's opponents are Kim Olson and Carroll G. Robinson, who argue Hinojosa has been unable to flip the state blue or make any substantial progress against Republicans.  Hinojosa says he has expanded the Democratic Party in Texas and is cutting into the Republican's lead and believes he can lead to winning a statewide office in November.  

“We need to win, and losing and pretending to win doesn’t help the people we say we represent as Democrats in the state,” said Robinson, chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats.

The convention comes at a time of mixed emotions for Texas Democrats, who had hoped for a historic breakthrough in 2020 but came up short in virtually every race they targeted. The next year, they watched as the state swung to the right through a series of red-meat legislative sessions, and then the GOP-led redistricting process reduced the number of competitive down-ballot races in November. But they have been newly galvanized by the Uvalde school shooting in May and the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade — and Robert Francis O’Rourke has been consistently polling within several percentage points of Gov. Greg Abbott despite a tough national environment for Democrats. 

The Texas Democratic Party Convention continues through the weekend at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas.