Why Texas Hasn't Flipped Blue

And no, it's not voter suppression.

In November of 2022, I voted in a general election for the first time ever. I cast my ballot for Beto O’Rourke, hoping he’d be able to beat Governor Greg Abbott. On election night, I found myself experiencing the heart ache of my first real loss in politics– one that felt deeply personal.

I was angry. I was also very young– and a bit naive. Beto was the first candidate I’d ever been really inspired by, the first one who I had met and spoke to. I felt like I was part of a movement–which obviously didn’t turn out how we had hoped, but that election loss taught me a number of lessons about how I should approach politics in the coming years.

I took to social media, declaring my anger at the Texas Democratic Party– demanding that the chairman Gilberto Hinijosa resign. The posts began to move. Soon I had members of the TDP’s governing board, the State Democratic Executive Committee, calling me. They sent texts, left voicemails addressing some of my concerns, and assured me that they understood where I was coming from. I didn’t respond to any of them other than to say If the chairman wanted to talk to me, he could call me himself.

How arrogant could I be? I thought after just one summer brushing up on Texas politics that I knew better than people who had been involved for most, if not all, of my life!

After a while I began to calm down. It helped that by this point I had started working and collaborating more with elected officials in the federal government. My philosophy on governance started to change. The more time I spent with elected officials and their staff, the more I came to understand that most politicians are normal people who just want to do their job and make progress where they can. I especially learned that the longer I spent time talking to elected officials in Houston where I’ve lived for almost 4 years now.

In 2023, I began spending more time with one Houston politician in particular– Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. She was running for mayor, and I fully supported her. I made that clear as often as I could. I posted on social media, advocated for her at club meetings, and stumped for her at events targeted at college students in the city. God rest her soul, I miss her dearly. Especially in times like these.

When the first round of the mayoral election was finished, the Congresswoman advanced to the run-off, where she would compete against State Senator John Whitmire. A “democrat” who had been in public office for over 50 years. I was a vocal critic of the Senator. I called him out for what I knew him to be– someone willing to compromise on Democratic morals and buddy up to Texas Republicans for the sake of growing his own power.

It was a non-partisan race, but many of his supporters pointed to his elected office. He was the Dean of the Texas Senate, and you couldn’t deny his record as it related to things like labor and union rights.

But I watched as the Senator spent his entire campaign denigrating then Mayor Sylvester Turner— a staunch Democrat. I watched as he said he wanted to have a good positive relationship with the Governor– which would include allowing Department of Public Safety Officers (which are overseen by Abbott) to patrol the city. This was just a few months after the state legislature passed a bill which essentially legalized racial profiling of people who “looked like migrants.”

So imagine my horror when Democratic elected officials all over Houston endorsed him– including a number of Latino leaders.

I watched as “progressive” clubs supported him— putting his logo on the literature they gave to voters, and as other groups focused on beating Republicans gave him awards and glowing recommendations.

That mayor's race taught me everything that is wrong with politics in the span of just a few short months.

John Whitmire had decades of campaign cash. He spent tens of thousands of dollars buying tables at fundraisers, where his name would then be printed in big bold letters in the program.

This is when I learned that a lot of the time politics isn’t just about turning out voters or finding the perfect tested messaging– it's about the political aristocracy.

It’s about club and non-profit leaders who coincidentally endorse the candidate that writes them the biggest check. It's about community figures who turn a blind eye to policies that hurt their own people in the hopes they’ll get a high paying job. It's about the fancy dinners thrown to pat each other on the back for near losses in races that shouldn’t even have been close.

This problem isn’t limited to Houston, or even to Texas– and it sure as hell isn’t limited to Democrats. But it made me come to understand part of the reason why Democrats in Texas continue to lose. John Whitmire won for a lot of reasons, including the many corrupt ones I listed above. However, something he did right was focus on building coalitions. He didn’t outwardly criticize his opponents often. He focused on the things Houstonians cared about– flood mitigation, public safety, and city spending. He didn’t run his campaign as a staunch Democrat, and he welcomed support from Republicans when it was offered. I’m woman enough to be honest– he ran a good campaign, and he was rewarded with an election victory because of it.

I realized then that while I was busy criticizing him for not being “democrat” enough, the people voting in the municipal election didn’t really care. They just wanted someone who would fix the issues they thought were prevalent in the city. I spent more time talking about how he was a “Republican” than talking about what my candidate wanted to do for the people. Criticism, critiques, and complaints– the three things that have killed the Texas Democratic party.

That election taught me that I needed to step outside my bubble. I needed to talk to people who disagreed with me, and figure out how Democrats could appeal to voters who didn’t necessarily identify with the party. I spoke to family, friends from high school, and even some Republican elected officials.

I realized that so many of the inter party squabbles and criticism Democrats so often focused on didn’t matter to people outside the inner workings. I found myself listening more to Democrats who had won in competitive seats, or performed beyond expectations. That’s when I started following Congressman Colin Allred. I had briefly met him at a dinner in the fall of 2022, and listened to him speak about his vision for Texas– long before he ever announced he was running for U.S. Senate. When he eventually announced he was, I was excited that I’d have the opportunity to vote for him in the Democratic primary.

Someone else who announced they were running was State Senator Roland Guittierez. I respect him, and I think he is a good man with a good heart, and to this day I wish him nothing but the best. I remembered what I had learned in that Mayor's race, and as I watched how Colin conducted himself– I had no doubt in my mind he would win. He never spoke negatively about his primary opponents, he focused on the issues, and he was clear and simple in his messaging. I decided that I was going to publicly make it known I would be voting for him.

Colin was campaigning in a different way than we’d seen in Texas in a long time. After 30 years of Republican rule, perhaps it was time to try something different. He would attend dinners and events, but he didn’t spend money on the things typically expected– or rather demanded– from a politician. He didn’t give weight to the demands of the aristocracy, and instead he focused on spending money communicating directly with voters.

He was targeted in the campaign stops he made and the conversations he had, focusing on cities and suburban areas with high voter turnout. It was a strategy that had worked well for him in 2018, when he defeated longtime Republican Congressman Pete Sessions in a huge upset. A seat that was drawn for a Republican to win and he won it by 7 points.

He was a battle tested candidate with a formula that led him to win before, so why not try again? But the thing about trying something new is that the people who benefit from the status quo don’t like the change. It was around this time that I noticed he was constantly being torn down by Texas Democratic politico’s. They claimed he was a Republican, that he was going to switch parties, or just outright that he didn’t care about Texas. They sounded a lot like me right before the loss in the Mayors race. They sounded like people upset their rings hadn’t been kissed.

As a supporter of Colin’s– I found myself defending him. Not as a campaign staffer, or as a paid advisor, but as someone who truly believed in him.

Which led to attacks against me. Group Chats of PAC leaders or organizers calling me spoiled, selfish, or stupid. Text messages telling me that I was a massive disappointment, and passive aggressive social media posts insinuating that I was just a paid shill. It wasn’t Republicans tearing me down– it was my fellow Democrats. Some of whom hold elected positions within the governing body of the Texas Democratic party.

Colin won the primary decisively. Shortly after, I reached out to the campaign team to see if there was some kind of role I could play. I was hired as a Digital Strategist. Not only did I do digital strategy work, but I spent my own money making extra campaign stops where I felt I could be effective. San Antonio, Waco, Austin, Sugar Land— I even flew to Dallas for an event directly from the DNC in Chicago, and then back to Houston the next day.

In June of 2024 during the state convention in El Paso, I was up working from 6AM to midnight every single day. I stumped for Colin in caucus meetings, ran around the convention center filming videos with delegates and elected officials, and sprinted through the auditorium handing out signs and campaign materials before Colin was set to give his speech. I tried to hand a sign to an SDEC member and I was told “he gets my vote, and nothing else.” I walked away without much comment as the group around her chuckled and rolled their eyes.

The attacks and criticisms continued, even as we entered the fall. Colin wasn’t feeding the political aristocracy, and as aristocrats do when not fed– they continued to scream about being hungry. They continued to degrade him on public platforms, and pick fights with me when they saw fit. Some people even tried to sabotage me from doing outreach work as a coalition chair, actively stopping me from engaging with key groups of voters because they felt I was undeserving as Co-chair of Young Texans for Allred.

Throughout the duration of the campaign I was yelled at, demeaned, and forced to apologize for things that weren’t my fault just to spare the ego’s of adults ten to thirty years my senior. Some confrontations made me so angry I had to take long walks– others outright brought me to tears. This was my first real job on a campaign, and it seemed like so many of the so-called leaders around me sought to make it miserable. Many of whom were the same “progressives” who constantly preach about the exploitation and mistreatment of campaign staff. There were times when it was so bad that even Colin caught wind. He responded exactly how you’d expect a father and good hearted Democrat to respond— with compassion and kindness. Every time I saw him he thanked me, making sure I knew my work was appreciated and seen. Which is why the election results were so painful.

I knew the first day of early voting we we’re going to lose. One of the lessons I’d learned from volunteering in the mayor's race was what polling locations in Harris county were strongholds for each party. I looked at turnout in places like Sunnyside, Baker Ripley, and Trini Mendenhall– and I knew Republicans were coming out strong and Democrats were not.

I spent election week working on a campaign I knew was going to lose, but I worked like we were going to win because that was the right thing to do. I started something and I needed to finish it– even if it was going to end in disappointment. On election night, I had to go on stage shortly after Texas had been called for Trump. I told a roomful of decreasingly optimistic Democrats and media that we were still waiting on results to come in, knowing that everyone already knew what they would be.

The election was called, Colin conceded, and supporters drifted out of the building one by one. The results were not the ones who had hoped for, but they are the ones that Texans chose. As Democrats we respect those results, and respect the will of those living in our state.

So imagine my horror as I saw people in our party's inner bubble gloating about the results. Essentially celebrating the fact that Ted Cruz had won– because at least that meant they had been right! Never mind the fact that Colin outperformed the top of the ticket by an impressive margin, and made impressive gains in the suburbs.

I knew then that I could not work in Texas politics again. I knew that working as a staff member meant dealing with these people and pretending like they were legitimate parts of the grander mission to turn Texas blue. When in reality they are a reason Democrats and the Texas Democratic Party continues to lose.

The fact of the matter is that Texas will not flip until people like that have no power or decision making ability in how the party conducts itself.

Until people who organize to get staff fired because they were called out for being a bully are kicked off their high horse.

Until people who trash a statewide candidate from our party to the press, in the middle of the most invested in race in decades, are no longer given a stage to speak.

Until people who anonymously source bullshit articles built on conspiracy theories about a 21 year olds campaign job are put on the record.

And finally, until the State Democratic Executive Committee members who spend more time organizing against Democrats than the Republicans who have made this state hell for the last 30 years resign or are removed.

To the people who are reading this because they want Texas to flip blue, you can start by finding out if the precinct you live in has a precinct chair or precinct captain. Visit your county party to find out, and if it doesn’t— consider signing up! Start attending SDEC meetings, and if your member isn’t representing you in a way you feel is productive— then maybe you should run against them.

To the people who are reading this because you know I wrote about you, and you can’t help but live in the conflict because that's where you find your relevancy— I hope you find whatever it is internally that you’re looking for.

And to Colin Allred and the Senior staff who gave me the most stressful and difficult job I have ever had– I thank you. I cannot thank you enough. You pushed me harder than I ever have been pushed before. I learned lessons and gained experience that I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and I do not regret a single second of it. It was one of the biggest honors I’ve ever known– and I wish all of Texas could have seen how full of heart and integrity you were. If they had, I have no doubt it would have been a landslide and Cruz would have boarded a flight to escape it.

For Texas, always.

Sincerely, a proud Texas Democrat.