After years of disappointment, Texas Democrats finally realized their goal of flipping Texas blue, winning the Senate race and every statewide race on the ballot.
By Isabella Volmert
Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/
2018. 2022. 2024.
For years, Texas Democrats dreamed of flipping seats in the longtime GOP stronghold of Texas. After election cycles yielded disappointment after disappointment, Democrats swept every statewide race on the ballot in Tuesday’s election.
Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Vikki Goodwin unseated Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Nathan Johnson won the attorney general’s race. Democrat James Talarico defeated Republican Ken Paxton in the U.S. Senate race.
For Texas Democrats, it’s a years-long effort that finally paid off.
“It took a while for it to settle in,” said Alejandro “AJ” Perez Jr., president of the University of North Texas College Democrats. “By the end of the night, I had lost my voice from all the cheering and shouting.”
Before Election Day, Perez thought Hinojosa and Talarico would win, but by razor-thin margins.
“Never in my wildest dreams,” he said of the widespread victory.
Perez, who grew up in Laredo, reported strong student turnout on campus and said he was thrilled to graduate college soon into a state run by Democrats.
“On a deeply personal and emotional level, the fact that I have a governor with a name like mine?” he said. “That is phenomenal.”
North Texans celebrate shocking results
Aaron Jolly, president of the Collin County Young Democrats, said he knew this year Democratic success was possible, but he never wanted to get his hopes up too much.
“As a Texas Democrat, you learn to live with a lot of loss,” he said, referencing Beto O’Rourke’s narrow Senate loss in 2018. O’Rourke also unsuccessfully ran for Texas governor in 2022.
Jolly and his wife recently welcomed a newborn daughter. He was with them when many of the races were called. Jolly said he was “very happy” with the results, “thinking about Gina Hinojosa and how my daughter has leaders like her to look up to.”
Kim Verriere, who was born in Texas, moved to Louisiana as a child and has spent the last 29 years in Texas, is a Christian spiritual adviser and progressive community activist. As she watched the election results, she remembered how it felt to be hopeful in Democrats and then disappointed. On Wednesday morning, she was still in shock.
“Is it real? Is it a dream?” she said.
Verriere takes part in a weekly prayer vigil for detainees at the Dallas Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office. She said it’s now time for Democrats to step up and get “things done.”
Almas Muscatwalla, an interfaith leader in North Texas and a Collin County Democratic precinct chair, said voters chose character over “bigotry” and “divisiveness.”
This past year, many Republican candidates, including Abbott, Paxton, and railroad commissioner candidate Bo French, leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric in their campaigns. A post from French about South Asian students at the University of Texas drew widespread condemnation.
Muscatwalla knocked on doors this election and said voters were concerned about the cost of living.
“Affordability was definitely the uppermost issue that people were highlighting,” she said.
Muscatwalla, a Muslim, choked up when speaking about how hard it has been to see her faith persistently attacked by Texas politicians over the past year. She is thrilled to see Hinojosa, a woman of color like herself, and Talarico take office, but hopes they will work to dispel anti-Muslim rhetoric in the state.
Democratic leaders attribute victory to coordination, voter turnout
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder credited the statewide victories to coordinated campaigning and expanded candidate recruitment. Scudder described the campaign as the party’s first coordinated effort since 1982, bringing organizations together to share voter data and avoid duplicating work.
“We were cautiously optimistic, a little worried that maybe we were measuring things incorrectly,” Scudder told The Dallas Morning News. “But this is what our internals told us was going to happen.”
Scudder said Democrats recruited candidates for every state and federal office on the ballot for the first time since 1972, helping increase support in traditionally Republican areas.
“I think the really important takeaway from this election is the amount of infrastructure that Democrats built this cycle,” he said.
Scudder criticized Republicans’ 2025 congressional redistricting effort, which sought to give the GOP as many as five additional seats. Democrats ended up gaining congressional ground, including in South Texas.
“Well, joke’s on them because Democrats actually gained seats in their maps that they drew,” Scudder said.
Looking ahead, Scudder said Democrats intend to build on their organizing infrastructure, arguing they can compete even without substantial investments from national Democratic organizations. The next challenge is translating results to help Texas families who are struggling.
“I’m feeling great,” he said. “I’m really excited for the opportunity to help so many people.”
Democrats finally notch statewide victories
In a statement, Dallas County Democratic Party Chair Kardal Coleman said Dallas County voters set a record for midterm turnout. The moment, he said, was 20 years in the making.
“Since Dallas County first turned blue in 2006, organizers, precinct chairs, candidates and neighbors have built this party block by block, even when a statewide win felt out of reach,” Coleman said in a statement.
In Tarrant County, county-wide Democratic candidates swept their races.
Tarrant County party chair Campolo said a years-long effort to connect with voters on county and city issues helped turn out voters for the Democratic Party. A significant number of Republican voters also stayed home, she said.
“Any Texas Democrat knows it’s been a Sisyphean effort for many years,” Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party, said in an interview Wednesday.
Campolo hopes the Democratic wins at the statewide level will equal better public schools and a transparent government.
“It’s a very exciting potential future,” Campolo said.
Staff writer Michael Cuviello contributed to this report.
Faith Reporter
Isabella Volmert reports on faith and religion for The Dallas Morning News. Previously, she covered state government and politics for the Associated Press in Indianapolis and Lansing, Mich. She is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame.
