Texas is a big red state. We have:
a. 36 representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives
b. 150 state house representatives in Austin
c. 31 state senators
d. 14 courts of appeal- with each court having between 3 and 13 justices
e. 456 judicial districts served by a single judge.
So why do we Texas Democrats get kicked in the gut every election cycle and double-kicked in off years? I looked at some figures from the state elections website for the November 2014 elections. After crunching the numbers a bit, I found that Republicans had no Democratic opponent in:
a. 7 U.S. congressional house races
b. 3 state-wide Texas Supreme & Court of Criminal Appeals races
c. 6 state senate races
d. 57 state house races
e. 19 justice races for various courts of appeal
f. 114 local judge races for various judicial districts &
g. 38 criminal district attorney races
So I would submit that this is at least one reason we aren’t turning blue at a faster pace. The policy positions between Republicans and Democrats in Texas are stark- especially on the issues of education, the environment, equal rights and the economy. One big problem we have, however, is that we aren’t running enough people to articulate our message.