AUSTIN, Texas -- As more than a dozen states go to the polls next week, Texas is looming as both a major prize and a daunting proposition for many of the Democrats vying to take on President Donald Trump.
The red state with the growing blue streak is too big to ignore, especially for a party that sees it as a future game changer in presidential and congressional politics. But it's also too big to win without a serious investment of time and cash. That's left the candidates with the biggest bank accounts with a clear advantage -- and many others struggling to find ways to make a dent.
Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $13.5 million on television ads around Houston alone.
"It's not a matter of will. It's a matter of having the means," said Matt Angle, a longtime Democratic strategist in Texas. "Texas is a very, very expensive state to compete in."
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California remains the largest haul of the Super Tuesday states, awarding 416 pledged delegates to Texas' 228. Taken together, the two states will award more delegates than the rest of the Super Tuesday states combined.
Like their Californian counterparts, Texas Democrats have long complained that their presidential candidates show up only to raise money. Texans add to that complaint that the party's top candidates rarely bother to hunt for votes in such a deep-red state. Their party hasn't won a statewide office since 1994, the nation's longest political losing streak, despite dominating the largest cities since first flipping Dallas in 2006.
By 2018, though, Democrats swept every top office on the ballot in Harris County, home to Houston and more people than the states of Iowa and New Hampshire -- which led off the presidential primary -- combined. The party now has a chance to take control of the Texas House in November and is vying to pick up the four congressional seats being vacated by retiring Republicans. Some Democrats believe the state's 38 electoral votes -- and a new path to the White House -- aren't too far out of reach.
The state party has tried to build on its momentum by commanding more attention from the 2020 field. But efforts to organize a forum of presidential candidates fizzled because it was difficult to get those running to commit while their attention was on Iowa and New Hampshire, said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party. He said the episode renewed his belief that the Democratic National Committee should change the order of the early primaries.
The candidates are coming now -- with little time to spare. Sen. Bernie Sanders barnstormed across the state last weekend, drawing thousands to a rally in liberal Austin. Bloomberg returned to Houston on Thursday; Pete Buttigieg, ex-mayor of South Bend, Ind., will be in Dallas; and Sen. Elizabeth Warren is hitting San Antonio with its former mayor, Julian Castro, a former presidential rival.
Other than fundraisers and a September debate in Houston, Joe Biden, the former vice president, has campaigned little in the state. The same goes for Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, though she announced Monday that at least some of a new $4.2 million TV ad buy will be spent in Texas.
During his last run for president, in 2016, Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, was trounced in Texas, losing to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.
But suddenly Sanders sees Texas as winnable. The Brooklyn-born Vermonter channeled his inner cowboy at a rally in Dallas on Sunday, confessing he'd never been to a rodeo in his life but saying he'd shoveled plenty of cow droppings in Washington as a senator. While visiting San Antonio, he spoke at a dance hall featuring a mechanical bull and was introduced by the band Pinata Protest, which modified the lyrics of the 1990s hit "Hey Baby, Que Paso?" -- known as the city's unofficial national anthem -- to "Hey Bernie, Que Paso?"
Texas is home to 5.6 million Hispanics eligible to vote in the 2020 election, according to the Pew Research Center, second in the nation behind only California's 7.9 million. Sanders has made a deliberate push to appeal to Hispanics this cycle.
Warren opened her first Texas field office last winter and now has four, featuring 60-plus staffers. She's spending nearly $400,000 in television ads that have aired in six TV markets statewide.
That's nothing compared to Bloomberg, who has spent more than $100 million on the airwaves combined in Texas and California.
A Section on 02/28/2020