WASHINGTON — With just over a month until Election Day, the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee announced today that it has invested $1.3 million to flip the Texas House from red to blue this November. Republicans are on defense across the state as President Trump’s historic unpopularity drags down candidates at all levels of the ballot.
“Texas is in play this year and we’re capitalizing on the momentum Democrats built in 2018 to flip the House,” said DLCC President Jessica Post. “Extremist, right-wing Republicans have utterly failed Texans with their coronavirus response — and we plan to hold them accountable for it at the ballot box this year. Our path to the majority this year is clear and with the right investments we can flip the Texas House blue this November.”
After gaining a dozen seats in 2018, Democrats need to flip nine more to win a majority this year. Beto O’Rourke carried nine Republican-held seats in his 2018 Senate bid, giving Democrats a long list of targets as Republicans continue to struggle with suburban voters across the state. For the first time in recent history, Democrats are running more state legislative candidates than Republicans.
Texas’s Republican leadership badly mishandled the coronavirus pandemic, reopening the state too quickly and preempting local public health restrictions. The botched response led to infighting among Republicans that has crippled the state’s response. Throughout the public health crisis, the GOP remained opposed to Medicaid expansion, denying affordable health care to more than a million of their constituents.
As the campaign enters the final stretch, Democrats have all the momentum in the state. Democrats outvoted Republicans in the primary for the first time in over a decade, and the GOP is increasingly on defense in the state. Polling shows tight races at all levels of the ballot as demographic change boosts Democrats’ fortunes. There are over a million new registered voters in Texas since 2018.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee is the official Democratic organization dedicated to winning state legislative seats. Earlier this year, the DLCC unveiled its unprecedented $50 million campaign to “Flip Everything” this November. Since Trump’s election, the DLCC and state partners have flipped over 450 seats and 10 chambers from red to blue.
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