-by Mike Siegel
Election night is approaching and my friends across Texas are busy turning out every progressive vote we can find.
Most of the signs point to statewide defeat, despite the indefatigable efforts of Beto O’Rourke and his committed coalition of Democratic activists. Beto has barnstormed, blockwalked, phone-banked, and relational-outreached his way across the state, to tremendous impact. Yet the odds are he will still be several percent short of victory on election night.
Greg Abbott and the Republican Party and their Corporate Overlords will insist that Beto losing means the failure of “socialist” politics. They will celebrate and salivate over the prospect of another legislative cycle for which the GOP controls every office of state government.
The tendency, on our side, will be to fall into depression and despair. There is ample reason— who knows what horrendous policies Republicans will adopt in the next legislative session? Are we facing the criminalization of parents who nurture children in a gender-affirming way? More bans on books and constraints on academic freedom? Voter suppression, union busting, or anti-immigrant hate? Probably all of the above.
Let’s face it, progressives are approaching one of our lowest points in Texas politics in 2023. The Republicans are at peak electoral power following the latest Gerrymander. Trumpism is metastasizing through school board meetings and social media chats. There is a real threat the presidency will swing back to the GOP as soon as 2024.
Yet in the face of all of this, there is reason to hope. And not just because there is nowhere to go but up.
First of all, there is a powerful generation of young organizers coming up across the state, people who have the potential to move mountains in the years ahead. I see them active in unionization campaigns at places like Starbucks and Via 313 pizzerias and Austin’s Ascension Seton hospital, and in plans to prepare for a nationwide UPS strike with the Teamsters next year. They are inspiring their neighbors in places like the Rio Grande Valley, leading efforts to elect progressive candidates like Jessica Cisneros and Michelle Vallejo and resisting the LNG gas plant at the Port of Brownsville. They are in El Paso fighting for local climate action, in Dallas organizing for paid sick leave, and in San Antonio building coalitions for police accountability.
And second, this up-and-coming cadre of movement-builders have started to elect progressive representatives at varying levels of government. In Houston this was folks electing Lina Hidalgo as county executive in 2018. In San Antonio two democratic socialists won City Council seats in 2020. And in 2022, union organizer and progressive activist Greg Casar is poised to become the next congressman for the Texas 35th, a safe Democratic district between Austin and San Antonio that he can represent for years to come. Across the state, at various levels of government, there are good people who are building progressive power and making a difference in the lives of their communities.
In my own work, at Ground Game Texas, I’m collaborating with Julie Oliver to develop a statewide organization that provides campaign tools and tactics to boost the efforts of local movements. Specifically, we’ve launched a dozen city ballot measure campaigns in the last two years, focused on popular, progressive issues like marijuana reform, a living wage, and climate action.
On November 8, five Texas cities will have the chance to decriminalize marijuana. We launched these campaigns because we believe in the reform and hope to keep people out of the criminal justice system. But we are also doing this to boost turnout— especially among young and infrequent voters. So when you watch the returns, keep an eye out for San Marcos and Denton and Killeen, to see if they not only adopt a common sense measure to focus scarce police resources on bigger public safety priorities, but also to see if more folks who are 18-24, or who usually only vote in presidential election, turn out to vote because weed is on the ballot.
Ground Game hopes to add thousands of votes for Beto and other Democrats by having these marijuana reforms on city ballots this Fall. We are doing our part in the 2022 cycle. But we also know that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it took longer than four or six years for Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight to turn Georgia blue.
In fact, the process to “flip” the politics of a state is a ten or fifteen year effort, if you look at what happened to Georgia and Arizona in 2020, or if you look into the past at a state like California, that turned from Republican to Democrat as a new generation of progressive Latino organizers got involved with electoral politics and responded to the anti-immigrant messages of the GOP by building a statewide movement.
That’s why Ground Game already has plans for 2023, to run May campaigns in San Antonio and El Paso on issues like criminal justice reform and climate action. And why we’re actively brainstorming with organizations around the state to develop campaigns in additional cities big and small.
The key is to keep making progress. To keep talking to voters. To associate Democratic candidates with popular, progressive policies. To build the base in each community that can elect local leadership and build momentum toward statewide change.
Because even if Beto loses on Tuesday night, we are making progress. In 2018 the Democratic nominee for governor lost by over 13%. In 2014 we lost by 20%. The fact that Greg Abbott is campaigning up until the last minute is because of the advances that the Democratic party has made here in the last few years.
Change is possible and hope is warranted. Even when our enemies are at their most possible, a path to victory is within sight. We just have to keep doing the work.
