My quote in The Wall Street Journal

I shared my thoughts on the future of Texas politics with The Wall Street Journal.

Texas’ 38 Electoral College votes could shift the presidency to the Democrats for a generation, Republicans acknowledge.

“Democrats have been saying this for a while, and some people have rolled their eyes…but I think people realize now that it’s a serious threat,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist in Austin.

Below is the full article.

After Near-Win in 2018, Democrats Hope to Flip Texas Blue 

By   Joshua Jamerson

March 11, 2019 

​DALLAS—Democrats from across the country passed through Texas over the weekend with dreams of reaching the White House, a stark reminder for Republicans that an energized Lone Star State Democratic electorate could help the party take back the presidency next year—and potentially for a generation.
“I’m looking for some blue Texans,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) told a crowd of about 700 people here on Sunday. She told reporters afterward that Democrats can flip the state into their column in 2020 because “people in Texas are fired up.”

For decades Democrats have hoped for statewide success in Texas, keeping an eye on the state’s growing urban areas and surging Hispanic population. Texans haven't sent a Democrat to statewide office since 1994. But Democrats see former Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s close race against Republican Sen. Ted Cruz last year as progress on which they can build in the 2020 fight to oust President Trump. Republicans, for their part, are looking to fortify a longtime GOP stronghold.

Mr. Cruz won about 4.3 million votes to Mr. O’Rourke’s 4 million in 2018, a victory that came by less than 3 percentage points. In the previous midterm election, Republican Sen. John Cornyn earned 2.9 million votes to his Democratic opponent’s 1.6 million—a 27-percentage-point spread.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said the DNC sees millions of Texans who sat out during the 2018 midterm election up for grabs in 2020.

“You get a tenth of those to get out and vote, we can flip Texas,” he said in an interview. “The trend data is in our direction.”

Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey acknowledged Republicans are at risk of losing races in Texas next year.

“By spending at least $80 million in just the Senate race in Texas in 2018,” he said, referring to Mr. O’Rourke, “Democrats improved their numbers down-ballot and awakened Republicans countrywide to the risk that Texas faces in 2020 unless we devote the resources and energy we must.”

Mr. Dickey said the state party hopes to add more than a million additional Republican voters in Texas for the 2020 election over 2018, to beat back Democratic gains. He said Mr. Trump’s policy agenda in Washington would bolster turnout.

A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll last week found that 51% of Texans would definitely or probably vote for someone other than Mr. Trump for president, while 49% said they definitely or probably would vote to re-elect him.Texas’ 38 Electoral College votes could shift the presidency to the Democrats for a generation, Republicans acknowledge.

“Democrats have been saying this for a while, and some people have rolled their eyes…but I think people realize now that it’s a serious threat,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP strategist in Austin.

Texas is also a big prize in the Democratic nominating contest. In the 2016 primary, Hillary Clinton won 147 of the state’s more than 200 pledged convention delegates, compared with 75 for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Comfortable victories in big, diverse states like Texas, California and New York helped Mrs. Clinton put Mr. Sanders away.

“I think it’s time well spent,” Mr. Perez said of Ms. Warren’s stop in Dallas. The Texas primary is on Super Tuesday in March, after the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Several Democrats running for president made a weekend swing through the South by Southwest festival in the liberal hub of Austin, including Ms. Warren, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg. Mr. O’Rourke attended the premiere of a documentary, “Running With Beto,” a behind-the-scenes look at his 2018 bid.

Mr. O’Rourke said he has reached a decision about whether to run for the Democratic presidential nomination but hasn’t stepped into the already crowded field.

Democrats also have their sights on six GOP-held House seats in Texas, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Twitter last week called “ground zero for us in the next election.” The party’s House campaign arm, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is preparing to dispatch field organizers in the Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio suburbs.

Meanwhile, the House GOP campaign arm, the National Republican Congressional Committee, has identified Texas seats held by Democratic freshmen Reps. Lizzie Fletcher of Houston and Colin Allred of Dallas as top targets to flip back into the Republican column.

Democratic voters here are hungry to see their state turn blue.

At the Warren event in Dallas, Diana Parr, a 74-year-old retired medical lab worker, said a Democrat who can energize voters who, like her, don’t vote in every midterm election can make the state competitive in a presidential race—“Kind of like Beto did,” she said.

Sam Lawson, 73, of rural east Texas, took in the O’Rourke documentary premiere Saturday at Austin’s Paramount Theatre with his wife Laurel Mayer, 67. The couple have volunteered and raised money for Mr. O’Rourke.

“Flipping Texas should be a primary objective for any Democrat in 2020,” Mr. Lawson said.