Texas Democrats Blame Poor Strategy for Their Continued Collapse

Texas Democrats are sorting through what went wrong after their shining hopes turned to ash in November — and what it means for their long-term plans to take power.

The party was optimistic it could make pivotal gains across the state, especially in the hard-fought race between Sen.

Ted Cruz (R) and Democratic Rep. Colin Allred.

But in the end, the party “woefully underperformed,” according to state Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D), the latest gut punch for Democrats in a state they’ve desperately tried to turn blue.

“It’s sort of a Lucy-and-the-football story,” Southern Methodist University historian Cal Jillson told The Hill.

“Every election cycle, they feel as if they are on the verge, and if they just had some natural money to put into the race, they could close it out.”

But many Democrats agreed that the wrong message, wedded to a too-thin electoral strategy and handled by a part-time staff with little connections to local Democratic machines, ultimately cost the party potential wins in the Lone Star State.

The Democrats “keep losing because we are poorly organized and we are not talking to Texans about the things they care about,” said Carroll Robinson, former chair of the Texas Coalition of Black Democrats who challenged Gilberto Hinojosa to lead the state party in 2022.

For the party, the scale of the loss was made all the worse by its optimism going in. Before the election, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D) told The Hill, “We’re out there talking to folk…  s, and they’re nodding their heads in agreement, where we feel like, ‘Oh man, we’ve got this in the bag.’”

Instead came a wipeout. Despite occasionally polling within striking distance of Cruz, Allred lost by 9 points.

In the state House, Texas Republicans flipped enough swing seats to cement control by the ascendant far-right.

The loss was significant enough that it led to last week’s resignation of Hinojosa, who has run the party since 2012. Many state Democrats have blamed him for failing to build a permanent infrastructure, and for presiding over an embarrassing run of statewide failures that helped enshrine the image of Texas among local Democratic donors and the nation at large as unassailably red.

Now, the party is at a crossroads, torn over whether to ally with the tattered business wing of the state GOP against the rising MAGA wing — which wants to shut them out of power — or whether to embrace the politics of chaos perfected by congressional Republicans.