After coming up empty in a well-funded, highly ambitious, and not-slightly hubristic effort to flip the Texas House in the last presidential election cycle, Democrats set their sights lower this time around: flipping two or three of the swingiest GOP-held districts as a means to disarm Governor Greg Abbott’s pro-school voucher gains in the Republican primaries.
And yet, Texas Dems managed to trip over their own low bar. Ahead of the elections, the head of the state House Democratic caucus, San Antonio Representative Trey Martinez Fischer, told the Texas Observer: “We’re gonna pick up seats regardless”—at least two, maybe up to seven or more.
Instead, Democrats not only whiffed on what they saw as the lowest-hanging fruit—districts in San Antonio, Dallas, and Cameron County—but also lost two open seats held by retiring Dems in Uvalde and Corpus Christi. As ever, the Texas Republican machine—led by Abbott’s war chest—was aggressive on both defense and offense, as candidates and outside groups outraised and outspent Democrats (who lacked much of any national funding this time) across the map.
