While Conventional Wisdom has written Texas off as being a deeply and permanently red state, if you ask any Texas Democrat you’ll hear a completely different story. Last Sunday night, Democrats in Harris County provided us all with a glimpse of why Texas, and Harris County in particular, is turning blue sooner than you think.
See why after the jump...
Hundreds of fired-up and ready-to-go Democrats poured into Discovery Green downtown for the Harris County Democratic Party’s Early Vote Rally, and soon park echoed with their cheers and calls for change. In fact, Harris County Democrats provided the largest crowd for an event at Discovery Green since the park opened last April.
Supporters heard from U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega, who is running against Bush’s rubber-stamp John Cornyn, Congressman Nick Lampson, who is running in a tight race to keep Tom DeLay’s old seat, and County Sheriff Candidate Adrian Garcia, who is running against scandal-plagued incumbent Tommy Thomas. They all urged the crowd to vote early and vote Democratic — Democrats got 48% of the vote in 2006, and if we all vote this year, we will finally take back the county.
Between speakers the party showed some videos we produced for the occasion: "Beat It," a video which goes through the unbelievable scandals and ethical problems of the Republican county government, and "Know the Facts," a video to clear up misconceptions about the voting process and urge the importance of voting straight ticket. If you’ve missed the event, you can catch all our videos here.
The enthusiasm shown by Democratic supporters at the rally is just the tip of the iceberg of the Democratic surge happening in Harris County. We’re going to turn the county blue, and before long, Texas Democrats will be turning more than a few heads.
Everyone there had a great time, and special thanks go out to all of our volunteers and candidates for making the event such a success. If you want to help out the cutting edge of Democratic action in Texas, visit www.hcdp08.org.