2024 Is Going To Be A Big Year For Texas Democrats

Challengers are throwing their hats in for unopposed Republican races, while Democrats around the country are overperforming in special elections.

Yesterday, I was invited to a super-secret meeting with multiple organizations focusing on recruitment efforts across the state. Actually, no one told me it was a secret meeting, but it felt that way because several people in the meeting were more plugged in than I was.

I thought I would bring you guys some good news. There are twice as many Democrats who will be running as we currently know about. They haven’t announced or launched their campaigns yet and are in contact and cahoots with the organizations on the call. Although there are still plenty of open seats, it isn’t as dire as I thought going into this week, and serious people are working to ensure those seats are not unopposed by the filing deadline.

Hats off to Monique Alcala, the new Executive Director of the Texas Democratic Party, who has hit the ground running and helped organize this collaborative effort for recruiting.

Plus, major counties are still focused on filling the empty races and having events like this one in Harris County last night.

So, who is running for what?

I’ll reach out to candidates directly over the next few weeks and months to see if I can, at the very least, write up a profile on who they are, and I’ll give some endorsements. Expect to see a new endorsement from me later this week.

Based on what I heard at the meeting last night, we will have fewer open seats next year than in 2022, which is excellent! The previous year, we had candidates in all major cities, but Texas Democrats dropped the ball. I know the last election was hard on everyone. But we don’t give up; we learn from our mistakes and move forward.

The more candidates we have on the ballot, the more opportunity there will be to engage with Texas voters.

So, here are some of the Congressional candidates who have announced. Make sure you follow them on social media and boost them when possible. This list isn’t complete yet, as several still haven’t been announced, and these are only the Democrats running against Republicans.

Congress:

• TX03 - Neil Efros

• TX05 - Mark Mosley and Ruth Torres (two candidates)

• TX06 - John Love

• TX08 - Laura Jones

• TX15 - Michelle Vallejo

• TX23 - Santos Limon

• TX24 - Francine Ly and Sam Eppler and Sandeep Srivastava (three candidates)

• TX27 - Anthony James Tristan

• TX38 - Melissa McDonough and Gion Thomas (two candidates)

In the coming weeks, I’ll also list candidates for the State House and State Senate.

Why is this coming election so important?

A lot of reasons. First and foremost, if you haven’t noticed, Republicans have taken a hard right toward fascism. They’ve gone off the deep end. There isn’t one civil right you currently have that isn’t at risk. People are fed up. They are fed up with their culture wars and focus on hate.

This is why Democrats have been overperforming in every special election in America this year. On average, Democrats have been overperforming by 11 points. But will that transcend to Texas?

In this November election, just a few weeks from now, there is a special election in Texas to replace Bryan Slaton’s open seat. There are five Republicans and one Democrat on the ballot. Kristen Washington is the lone Democrat running in this very red district. I like her and think she’s a fantastic candidate, but again, this is a red district.

This will be an essential race for gauging Democrat’s expected performance in 2024. If Washington performs better than expected, then that’s a massive indicator of how Democrats are going to turn out in 2024.

You must remember that Republicans are amid an ugly Civil War, which will likely depress their base. November will be our first opportunity to see how their infighting impacts their voters. I’m optimistic.

Stay tuned for an update on the border bills.

The House Committee on State Affairs is meeting to discuss more border legislation today. They gavel in at 10:30. I’m planning on watching the entire thing. I’ll get clips up on Twitter and YouTube. Then, I will update you about these bills tonight.

It’s looking like vouchers are dead for the special session. Keep your fingers crossed.