Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez visited San Antonio Saturday to promote the candidacy for two radical left candidates for House. Greg Casar and Jessica Cisneros joined AOC to campaign for the March 1 primary at a San Antonio club.
She claimed that “Here’s the exciting thing about Jessica’s and Greg’s races… is that, if we flip Texas we flip America.”
This is an intriguing assumption. But can it really be true? Are Democrats capable of turning Texas from red to blue?
Ten years ago, Texas was on the verge of a historic turn. If these trends had not stopped, it would have been possible for Texas to flip to blue. The moment has passed for Democrats. Some Republicans, including Donald Trump, have found a way to appeal to Hispanic voters in a way that Republicans did not previously.
These facts are obvious. The facts are clear. While the Democrats’ Hispanic share is declining, the GOP’s is increasing. This doesn’t mean Texas is going to stay red. However, the timetable and calculations used by Democrats for flipping Texas have been proven inaccurate.
Ocasio-Cortez stated that she believes Texas will soon turn blue during the rally. Ocasio-Cortez claimed it was only a matter of time before Texas turns blue. She supported Cisneros, Casar and called them progressive leaders who are fighting for Texas families.
AOC isn’t the only politician to predict a Texas switch.
The New York Representative is not the only politician to envision a world in which the Republican Party loses Texas’ 38 electoral college votes. This would be a disaster for the party. Senator Ted Cruz (Republican from Texas) stated that the state would be closed for the 2020 presidential election in September 2019. (Ex-President Trump won the state with 52.1% to President Biden’s 46.5%)
It’s a good idea to look back at 1984 and recall that Ronald Reagan won Washington, Oregon, and California by large margins. In 2020, Donald Trump lost all those states. In the intervening decades, there was a migration of Californians into every state that changed them from red to purple to blue.
Although it is possible that Texas will experience the same fate, given that Texas is the Lone Star state and the site of more Californian migration, it’s not certain. However, Republicans cannot spend more on other battleground states by forcing them to invest in Texas, a state that was once safe.
In a close race, this could mean the difference in victory or defeat.
