SAN ANTONIO (CN) — The message from the third day of the Texas Democratic Party’s virtual convention was clear: Victories in the Lone Star State and the White House hinge on activating the black and Latino vote, which represents a growing swath of registered voters who historically don’t vote at high numbers.
But forget terms like “sleeping giant” when it comes to mobilizing the estimated 32 million Hispanic voters eligible to cast ballots in November – they aren’t helpful to the community or Democrats, said Mayra Macias, executive director of the Latino Victory Project.
“I think language is so important,” Macias said during a panel discussion Wednesday. “Latinos have the power and will be the determining factor in this election in 2020.”
Early presidential polls show a virtual tie in Texas, where a win for Democrats in the delegate-rich state could transform the Electoral College map and spell trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.
A Quinnipiac poll of registered Texas voters out Wednesday found Trump receiving 44% of the vote, with former Vice President Joe Biden getting 43% in a general election matchup.
“Too tight to tell in Texas,” said Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy. “As the country confronts chaos and Covid-19, perhaps one of the most important states of all is a toss-up.”
That’s an encouraging sign for Alisa Simmons, a Texas House candidate hoping to flip a Republican-held seat in north Texas, who warned that Democrats can’t afford to have black voters disengaged.
“The party cannot bear to lose the black women’s vote, or the vote of black millennials, who are very finicky and untrusting of the party at this time,” Simmons said, adding that black millennials “didn’t vote for Hillary” in 2016.
“We’ve got to educate folks, we’ve got to have real talk, real conversations with our people about ‘this is why you have to vote,” she said.
Tracy Scott, president of Texas Black Women’s PAC, used the recent killing of Ahmaud Arbery to illustrate why a comprehensive voter education effort is needed to help inform minorities about why voting matters, especially at a time when social inequality and police use of force are at the forefront of the national conversation.
“In the case of police brutality and Ahmad Aubrey, who’s involved in that?” Scott said. “So there’s the district attorney, you vote for the district attorney. There is the mayor and the council – they hire the police chief – and the gun laws and hate crime [laws], that is all defined in the legislature.”
But electoral successes in Texas won’t come without a fight. No Texas Democrat has won a statewide office since the 1990s and Trump’s popularity remains solid in large sections of the 254-county state.
“Democrats dreaming about flipping blue is exactly that, just a dream,” the Republican Party of Texas tweeted Wednesday. “Texas is forever Trump country!”
The Texas Democratic Party will continue its fourth day of its totally online convention Thursday, featuring trainings, meetings and panel discussions on issues including voting by mail in this election cycle, disabilities and the fight for equal access, and a conversation with the 2020 statewide Democratic judicial slate.
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