Can The TDP's New Executive Director Lead Us To Flipping The State?

[Shell_Seas]

A shake-up in Texas politics as the Texas Democratic Party hires Monique Alcala, a young, progressive leader with a vision of change.

https://www.lonestarleft.com/p/can-the-tdps-new-executive-director



Today, the Texas Democratic Party announced that Monique Alcala will be its permanent Executive Director. Alcala brings over a decade of political, nonprofit, and government experience to the Party – including high-profile roles as a Congressional aide, on the Biden for President campaign in 2020, and most recently as the Southwest Regional Director for EMILY’s List.

The TDP’s announcement didn’t include all of Alcala’s accolades, but I looked them up. Earlier this summer, she participated in a Q&A with Rachel Maddow, which of course, is not a qualification, but we all love Rachel. So I, for one, was impressed. Aside from that, she was once acting chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia’s Latino Caucus and helped flip several seats blue. I also found several interviews and forums she participated in on YouTube.

My takeaway? She’s young, progressive, and has a firm grasp on Democratic politics. I also think Alcala understands how important getting the vote out is if we want Texas to flip.

[nycbos]

1. Um no.

Because Texans want to go backward, been talking about Texas flipping blue for more than a decade and a half now give it up it's not happening. Did you see what happened in South Texas in 2020? There was a huge swift to Trump among Latinos in that region, despite the racist rhetoric.

[Shell_Seas]

2. I think you greatly misunderstand the Lone Star State and the issues you mentioned.

Voter oppression here is really bad, and it might look like apathy for someone on the outside looking in. I'm in school full-time right now, and the week before the election, I asked many of my classmates if they were going to vote. The most common answer was, "They didn't know how." Like they didn't know how even to get registered; by then, it was too late to register.

In the last election, 9.5 million people either didn't or couldn't vote. Over 5 million in 2020.

We've had bad Democratic leadership in Texas, but we still do, but I'm optimistic. All of our major cities are blue, and 83% of the state lives in urban counties. The demographics are blue. Biden and Beto won with every racial group except white people. And even though white people are a minority in Texas, they make up the majority of people who actually vote.

And there was not a huge shift to Trump, and that small shift did not move at all in 2022. But the takeaway from South Texas in 2020 should be how every down-ballot Democrat won. They only shifted the vote for Trump. It was an anomaly based on Trump/Biden.

Regardless, we have the numbers in our favor, and we just have to get people to the polls. I think most people now realize that's the issue.

[Susan Calvin]

3. Bingo. nt

[carpetbagger]

4. It's a bit much to expect a party exec director to flip a state.

She seems good, but to be clear she's had little involvement in Texas politics in her professional career, and Virginia's success was predicated on an Anglo suburban vote much different than ours. We've had several executive directors churning through that position. The leadership is the same leadership that's been in place for the last decade, and the strategy has been the same.

Hoping to see magic, but we're several steps away from winning a statewide office at this point.

I will say that the state party is better at doing their job, especially with Latino outreach, than the last state I lived in (Florida), but that's not saying much (C- to really low F).