Texas Democrats admit to faltering on messaging and voter turnout, contributing to resounding midterm losses

A woman watches the election results and waves a United States flag at the Beto O'Rourke election night headquarters event, on Nov. 8, 2022, in El Paso. (Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune)

The odds were more stacked than usual against Texas Democrats this election cycle, with an unpopular president from their party going against them. Yet there was still hope and cautious optimism within the party that if anyone could pull off the upset, it would be Beto O’Rourke.

At a minimum, he could give a repeat performance of his 2018 matchup against U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, where he came close enough to defeating the Republican — less than 3 percentage points — that Democrats could convincingly make the case that Texas is a battleground state worthy of national attention and investment.