Opinion of Battleground Texas

[Blackacre]

The architects of Obama's 2012 win are setting their sites on Texas with the intent to change it from deep red to light red/purple/bluish. (or vice-versa in atlas colors)

What are your thoughts on this operation? Can it succeed? Or is it doomed to fail miserably? (I replace Horrible Organization with Stupid Organization for this question)

[Maxwell]

If Hillary is running against Rick Santorum, than it is a freedom organization.

Otherwise, meh. Texas is fools gold for Democrats because Republicans have been working the Hispanic vote there for ages while Democrats are just sitting around waiting for the Hispanic vote to come their way.

[Lief 🗽]

Anything that makes it more difficult for the fascist party to win elections is a good thing, and it's pretty obvious that the Republican party would be in very deep trouble if Texas were even a swing state.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Freedom organization. What they are doing right now probably won't pay off before the 2030s or so, but that doesn't make it useless, far from it.

[traininthedistance]

If Hillary is running against Rick Santorum, than it is a freedom organization.

Otherwise, meh. Texas is fools gold for Democrats because Republicans have been working the Hispanic vote there for ages while Democrats are just sitting around waiting for the Hispanic vote to come their way.

Isn't it more like "Texas Hispanics don't vote, and Dems haven't really been doing anything to change that?"

I mean, sure, the Texas Hispanics who do vote are more Republican than Hispanics in, say, NY/NJ.  But they're not as Republican as they might look at first glance, because that glance is based on horrid turnout in areas where whites are super-R.

[Indy Texas]

They need to devote more attention to winning local races in fast-growing suburbs. It doesn't sound very glamorous to deal with races for district judges and county sheriffs, but the reality is that the Democrats will never be able to compete in these areas until they cultivate candidates with name recognition who have passed the test of the voters there already.

They need to do two primary things:

1. Undertake measures to increase voter turnout in South Texas (in Webb County and Hidalgo County, two of the most populous counties in the state, voter turnout is often less than 25 percent. They are winning 70% or more of the ones who do turnout. Assuming the nonvoters would vote similarly, those are votes that are just left sitting around not being gotten).

2. Build up the party in Tarrant County (Fort Worth), Collin County (Plano), Denton County (Denton), Williamson County (Round Rock) and Fort Bend County (Sugar Land). Do what the Republicans did in places like these 50 years ago and show the voters there that it's okay to vote for a Democrat every now and then. Eventually, many of them will make a habit of it.

[Sopranos Republican]

If Hillary is running against Rick Santorum, than it is a freedom organization.

Otherwise, meh. Texas is fools gold for Democrats because Republicans have been working the Hispanic vote there for ages while Democrats are just sitting around waiting for the Hispanic vote to come their way.

Texas is a place where the Republicans are doing a good job, trying to receive the Hispanic vote. I don't see Texas going anywhere for a while.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Certainly better than Battlefield Earth.

[Sol]

Neutral. I suspect that by the time it pays off at all, the Republican efforts to win over Hispanics will have counteracted it. However, making offices like governor or senator vaguely winnable for the Democrats is helpful.

[opebo]

Very positive if it doesn't divert resources from more incipient opportunities.  For example, one hopes that there are organizations at work to move Florida from tossup to lean Dem:

No need for Texas, that's for sure.  With FL it doesn't even matter if they lose some ground in the midwest and PA:

[nolesfan2011]

The architects of Obama's 2012 win are setting their sites on Texas with the intent to change it from deep red to light red/purple/bluish. (or vice-versa in atlas colors)

What are your thoughts on this operation? Can it succeed? Or is it doomed to fail miserably? (I replace Horrible Organization with Stupid Organization for this question)

doomed to fail miserably, at least for a couple of cycles.. as long as Dems keep tanking with white voters, Texas will stay red, the GOP is gaining a white vote for every new hispanic voter the Dems register.

Texas is more GOP now than it was in 04, and its the Dems fault, even if the GOP has gone crazy.

[Indy Texas]

If Hillary is running against Rick Santorum, than it is a freedom organization.

Otherwise, meh. Texas is fools gold for Democrats because Republicans have been working the Hispanic vote there for ages while Democrats are just sitting around waiting for the Hispanic vote to come their way.

Texas is a place where the Republicans are doing a good job, trying to receive the Hispanic vote. I don't see Texas going anywhere for a while.

The percentage of the Hispanic vote the Republicans have gotten in gubernatorial races has been getting consistently lower the past few cycles. Bush won the Hispanic vote outright in his 1998 reelection landslide (he even carried El Paso County and there was actually a group called "Housekeepers for Bush" run by some Hispanic cleaning ladies). I read an article recently saying Perry lost Hispanics by more than 20 points in 2010 - better than a Republican would do nationally or in other states, but hardly something to write home about.

[SPC]

Certainly better than Battlefield Earth.

While Texas Democrats were still learning how to spell their name, Texas Republicans were being trained to conquer galaxies.