I feel for you sister..i was ED in Hays way back........i know how isolating it can be.......and we were a 50/50 county...so if ur blue in deep red Texas..........permit me to say it...
ur a DAM HERO
i don't know that i would have the cajones to represent the D party in small town Texas in the MAGA age
As an ED from the wayback.....1990's...we had no interaction with the State Party....as well as our own chair...he went on a vacation during the GOTV......so i think that there is a need for top down leadership and authority.
Currently in the largest blue to red party, Tarrant, the Chair is inexperienced, uncommunicative and is failing us......we have no power to redress this except appeal to her friends that installed her....she was 'selected' by the EC in the special session. She wasn't even a party regular, so i am told....they just picked her out of the either....In FTW we have the Opal Lee Industrial complex so i assume she came from there. Our current chair and the previous 2 chairs have no relationship with the 40% of Tarrant citizens who are Hispanic.
Because of the party structure no one from Austin can or will take her to the woodshed. I know, I ask regularly.
there are lot less complaints from the other 4 large Texas counties cause they are blue and they . win...Tarrant has no reason not to be blue demographically speaking. It is red according the pubisher of LSL , Michelle Davis , cause nobody votes. Nobody votes because current leadership has no idea how to 'touch' a voter. We can't discipline or fire the leadership until a year from next month. As you can imagine its closed circle between the Chair, the ED,. paid staff and some EC.
Performance and experience is not a critiera for getting or holding the job.
So i am all for more control and authority from Austin. The problems in Austin are the same as FTW as Dallas but it seems like FTW resides in an altogether different space.
PS: the idea of electing the Chair during the primary is dumb as hell. That new Chair has to fight an election with a 6 month window.......you can imagine the problems...the reason u have a new chair is cause the old chair recognizes the piss poor job they did and retires with a screwed up mess to pass along to the new chair to try to fix in less than 6 months. Who but a masochist or an ignorant incompent* would want to run to take over another chair's failure with only 6 months leeway?
Well, actually I think we DO NEED Rural voters. Why? Because we are solidly gerrymandered. The urban districts are all blue. On the state level that is all you are going to get. So we have to start working on the exurb districts. If we don’t take the house and start working on the senate, it will never matter if we have the governors office or flip blue for presidential candidate. We can’t amend the Texas constitution for women’s or gay rights. We need rural organizing to up the blue margins and we need urban organizing to ensure with blow up the margins. But for too law the focus has only been on the blue counties and they have been on their own, but did our country clubs, who are all gerrymandered on the state senate and on federal congress get any help organizing? Any of the millions they got? Nope. And as a result now the republicans smell blood in the Dallas suburbs. We need leadership they teachings how to organize, how to cut turf, how to train, and to work if all the different coalitions and PACS. For me that means only one person knows how to do all that work and has made inroads across the whole party. The other candidates can continue to help and raise money but we need someone who can speak to rural and urban voters and who isn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers or piss some people off. They need to be on Social Media daily and listen to county and club chairs about what they need and not listen to the DC consultants. There is only one person who can do that right now. I don’t get a vote either but after going to meetings across my district and listening to our constituent groups, Kendall Scudder is my first choice.
Sure, we need rural voters, but the State Party has spent the last many years focusing on rural areas while ignoring urban voters. Now, urban areas barely have over 50% turnout, and millions are not voting in our most populated counties.
I think we can all agree that everyone has felt on their own when it comes to the Texas Democratic Party.
I have a lot of concerns about Kendall Scudder. He is not my first choice, but I don't have a say.
Michelle, We moved Dallas in 1998 and stayed 12 years . My wife worked at Presby, I worked for EDS. My grandfather was a Chicago Democrat, worked for the mayor in the 1940 era. I felt like the only Democrat in the state of Texas. I was registered as a Democrat (how could I not be). I never was approached by anyone in the party, never met anyone who admitted to being a Democrat. That says a lot about the Texas Democratic Party. Has anything changed in the last 12 years?
I talked to a nice fellow in Goldman's DC office......the FTW # is kinda dodgy
at the end of the convo he asked from my info, and I started to give it...then i caught myself and instead told him i didn't trust him with my name and other info.
He assured me they would never divulge my info as a critic of Trump.\
To which i said...."who trusts the R congress who have completely capitulated to Musk. Thanks anyway"
Kudo’s and thanks to all the Hispanic families that came out an protested deportation at the TCDP(Tarrant County Texas Democratic Party) sponsored protest in White Settlement Tx last Sunday Feb 16.
You sung , chanted , marched ,prayed, raised your voices in support and protection of ur brother,sisters, husbands , wives , uncles , aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, who are caught in jaws to Trump deportation Hate Machine. Some risked surveillance and a visit by ICE.
You are the best of us all. We thank you for representing American values.
To the shameful lazy, uncommitted Executive Committe Members and especially the Chair, Crystal Gayden who couldn’t bother to show up…..to ur own event …..QUIT…..immediately.
I counted no EC’s and 2 Pct Chairs. There were 2 paid staff who make collectively $150,000 a year.
Otherwise no leadership or Staff could be bothered to show up to support our beleaguered fellow citizens and neighbors.
I agree 100%. As a County chair I would welcome help from TDP. Being on your own isn’t fun.
I feel for you sister..i was ED in Hays way back........i know how isolating it can be.......and we were a 50/50 county...so if ur blue in deep red Texas..........permit me to say it...
ur a DAM HERO
i don't know that i would have the cajones to represent the D party in small town Texas in the MAGA age
As an ED from the wayback.....1990's...we had no interaction with the State Party....as well as our own chair...he went on a vacation during the GOTV......so i think that there is a need for top down leadership and authority.
Currently in the largest blue to red party, Tarrant, the Chair is inexperienced, uncommunicative and is failing us......we have no power to redress this except appeal to her friends that installed her....she was 'selected' by the EC in the special session. She wasn't even a party regular, so i am told....they just picked her out of the either....In FTW we have the Opal Lee Industrial complex so i assume she came from there. Our current chair and the previous 2 chairs have no relationship with the 40% of Tarrant citizens who are Hispanic.
Because of the party structure no one from Austin can or will take her to the woodshed. I know, I ask regularly.
there are lot less complaints from the other 4 large Texas counties cause they are blue and they . win...Tarrant has no reason not to be blue demographically speaking. It is red according the pubisher of LSL , Michelle Davis , cause nobody votes. Nobody votes because current leadership has no idea how to 'touch' a voter. We can't discipline or fire the leadership until a year from next month. As you can imagine its closed circle between the Chair, the ED,. paid staff and some EC.
Performance and experience is not a critiera for getting or holding the job.
So i am all for more control and authority from Austin. The problems in Austin are the same as FTW as Dallas but it seems like FTW resides in an altogether different space.
PS: the idea of electing the Chair during the primary is dumb as hell. That new Chair has to fight an election with a 6 month window.......you can imagine the problems...the reason u have a new chair is cause the old chair recognizes the piss poor job they did and retires with a screwed up mess to pass along to the new chair to try to fix in less than 6 months. Who but a masochist or an ignorant incompent* would want to run to take over another chair's failure with only 6 months leeway?
*I don't mean to be uncharitable to those who have taken on that challenge but its shouldn't be some weird TDP rule that make your job impossible.
Well, actually I think we DO NEED Rural voters. Why? Because we are solidly gerrymandered. The urban districts are all blue. On the state level that is all you are going to get. So we have to start working on the exurb districts. If we don’t take the house and start working on the senate, it will never matter if we have the governors office or flip blue for presidential candidate. We can’t amend the Texas constitution for women’s or gay rights. We need rural organizing to up the blue margins and we need urban organizing to ensure with blow up the margins. But for too law the focus has only been on the blue counties and they have been on their own, but did our country clubs, who are all gerrymandered on the state senate and on federal congress get any help organizing? Any of the millions they got? Nope. And as a result now the republicans smell blood in the Dallas suburbs. We need leadership they teachings how to organize, how to cut turf, how to train, and to work if all the different coalitions and PACS. For me that means only one person knows how to do all that work and has made inroads across the whole party. The other candidates can continue to help and raise money but we need someone who can speak to rural and urban voters and who isn’t afraid to ruffle some feathers or piss some people off. They need to be on Social Media daily and listen to county and club chairs about what they need and not listen to the DC consultants. There is only one person who can do that right now. I don’t get a vote either but after going to meetings across my district and listening to our constituent groups, Kendall Scudder is my first choice.
Sure, we need rural voters, but the State Party has spent the last many years focusing on rural areas while ignoring urban voters. Now, urban areas barely have over 50% turnout, and millions are not voting in our most populated counties.
I think we can all agree that everyone has felt on their own when it comes to the Texas Democratic Party.
I have a lot of concerns about Kendall Scudder. He is not my first choice, but I don't have a say.
100% agree we have all been alone from the state and national party. But we are a very big state and need help to train everyone.
Great piece, as always, Michelle!!
Thank you 💙
Michelle, We moved Dallas in 1998 and stayed 12 years . My wife worked at Presby, I worked for EDS. My grandfather was a Chicago Democrat, worked for the mayor in the 1940 era. I felt like the only Democrat in the state of Texas. I was registered as a Democrat (how could I not be). I never was approached by anyone in the party, never met anyone who admitted to being a Democrat. That says a lot about the Texas Democratic Party. Has anything changed in the last 12 years?
We’ve been under the same leadership since 2012, but they’ve resigned now.
Thanks again for a very informative article. Well said. Agreed.
I talked to a nice fellow in Goldman's DC office......the FTW # is kinda dodgy
at the end of the convo he asked from my info, and I started to give it...then i caught myself and instead told him i didn't trust him with my name and other info.
He assured me they would never divulge my info as a critic of Trump.\
To which i said...."who trusts the R congress who have completely capitulated to Musk. Thanks anyway"
202 225 5071
A letter to the Tarrant County Democratic Party
Kudo’s and thanks to all the Hispanic families that came out an protested deportation at the TCDP(Tarrant County Texas Democratic Party) sponsored protest in White Settlement Tx last Sunday Feb 16.
You sung , chanted , marched ,prayed, raised your voices in support and protection of ur brother,sisters, husbands , wives , uncles , aunts, grandmothers, grandfathers, who are caught in jaws to Trump deportation Hate Machine. Some risked surveillance and a visit by ICE.
You are the best of us all. We thank you for representing American values.
To the shameful lazy, uncommitted Executive Committe Members and especially the Chair, Crystal Gayden who couldn’t bother to show up…..to ur own event …..QUIT…..immediately.
I counted no EC’s and 2 Pct Chairs. There were 2 paid staff who make collectively $150,000 a year.
Otherwise no leadership or Staff could be bothered to show up to support our beleaguered fellow citizens and neighbors.
SHAME ON YOU
QUIT NOW EC and COUNTY CHAIR
I'm pretty sure they aren't reading the comment section of my blog. 🤷🏻♀️
I asked,,,some do...are comments serachable?..cause if u google white settlement deportation protest u get bupkis
it begs the existential question: if u hold a protest and nobody knows about it...........
I don't know. 🤷🏻♀️