Tag Archives: Battleground Texas

Time for another chat about voter registration and turnout

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Let’s do it. Texas Democrats came away from Beto O’Rourke’s surprisingly narrow 2018 defeat to U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz with a simple plan: register to vote the millions of nonvoting Texans that demographics suggest lean Democrat and electoral victories will … Continue reading →

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We hit a new peak in voter registrations

Posted on October 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

It’s good to see, whatever it “means”. Texas now has almost 17.7 million voters — 1.9 million more than four years ago, when Gov. Greg Abbott won re-election. New voter registration totals from the Texas Division of Elections show the … Continue reading →

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We continue to register more voters

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Charles Kuffner

Seventeen million and counting. Texas has surpassed 17 million registered voters for the first time, continuing a pace that is reshaping the state’s electorate so rapidly that even the politicians cannot keep up. Despite a series of new election regulations … Continue reading →

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Despite it all, voter registration keeps increasing

Posted on August 17, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

You love to see it. Not even the worst pandemic to hit Texas in a century was enough to stem the surge in voter registrations that has remade the state’s electorate over the past four years. Just since March, Texas … Continue reading →

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Speaking of voter registration

Posted on January 23, 2020 by Charles Kuffner

The Chron notes the latest milestone. For the first time in history, Texas has topped 16 million registered voters and is adding voters faster than its population grows heading into the 2020 presidential election. With the voter registration deadline for … Continue reading →

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The TDP 2020 plan

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Charles Kuffner

Bring it on. The Texas Democratic Party is pulling back the curtain on its 2020 strategy ahead of the Houston presidential debate, releasing a plan to flip the state that targets 2.6 million potential Democratic voters who are not registered … Continue reading →

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The potential for more

Posted on December 8, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Beto O’Rourke came very close to beating Ted Cruz. How much closer can Dems get in 2020? As newly updated election results showed U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s victory was even tighter than first realized, Democratic-led voter registration groups are saying … Continue reading →

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Lots more voters registered statewide

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

Always good to hear. The Texas voter rolls have grown to 15.6 million people, a new record, Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos confirmed. That is nearly a 400,000-person increase since March and a jump of 1.6 million since the … Continue reading →

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On enthusiasm and fundraising

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Charles Kuffner

RG Ratcliffe engages the “can Lupe Valdez be competitive” question. Valdez will almost certainly lose to Greg Abbott in November. Yet if she inspires Hispanic voters to turn out, she could help Democratic candidates in tight down-ballot races and make … Continue reading →

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Framing the 2018 question

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

This Chron story asks the question “what might it take for a Democrat to win statewide in Texas in 2018, then never actually engages it. At the five-top table in the corner at Russell’s Bakery, a northwest Austin restaurant and … Continue reading →

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Beto on the road

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

A great chance to meet our Senate nominee, if you haven’t already. Looking to overcome the long odds in his U.S. Senate campaign, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, has hit the road for an aggressive 34-day tour of Texas. … Continue reading →

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Trib overview of the Pasadena elections

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Charles Kuffner

Good stuff. When voters head to the polls here Saturday, their city council and mayoral picks could have repercussions well beyond this working-class Houston suburb. It will be the first election since a federal judge struck down the city’s 2013 … Continue reading →

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Early voting starts today

Posted on October 24, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

From the inbox: Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart announced today that 46 locations will be open Monday, October 24 to Friday, November 4 where voters in the third largest County in the nation may cast ballots during the early voting … Continue reading →

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What should the goals for 2016 be for Texas Dems?

Posted on June 16, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

Given that carrying the state is highly unlikely, what else is there to aim for this year? So will Democrats make a presidential play for Texas or not? Presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton stoked the issue last month by saying she … Continue reading →

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Checking in on Battleground Texas

Posted on February 20, 2016 by Charles Kuffner

They’re still here. So where does [Lon] Burnam see Battleground Texas in his plan to be the first Texas Democrat elected to a statewide office since 1994? “No comment,” he said, before adding as he walked away, “In 20 years … Continue reading →

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BGTX 2.0

Posted on September 20, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

They will have a lot to prove, let’s just leave it at that. Battleground Texas, nearly a year after it and Wendy Davis were crushed in an uphill governor’s race, officially has launched an effort to re-brand itself in light … Continue reading →

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SOS to review motor voter complaints

Posted on July 8, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

I hope this amounts to more than lip service. The Texas Secretary of State has agreed to study why thousands of Texans have complained over the past year and a half that they had problems registering to vote despite a … Continue reading →

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Keeping up with Team Hillary

Posted on May 18, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Just checking in, but this story does address a question I’ve been wondering about. The dozen or so Hillary Clinton supporters gathered here late Tuesday had no illusions that ruby-red Texas would play a key role in electing the next … Continue reading →

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More on Hillary Clinton’s 50-state strategy

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Again, I like what I’m hearing so far. Hillary Clinton had a message to relay in private meetings with state and local Democrats during her highly-choreographed swings through Iowa and New Hampshire this month: let me help you. The implication? … Continue reading →

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Hillary Clinton’s Texas staffer

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Here he is. Hillary Clinton is dispatching a full-time organizer to Texas, part of a 50-state strategy to build support for her presidential bid. Manfred Mecoy, the Texas grassroots organizer, is a Fort Worth native and University of Texas at … Continue reading →

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BGTX’s self-assessment

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Texas Monthly has a good overview of where Battleground Texas stands – and where the people inside it think they stand – two years and one electoral beatdown into their existence. Still, it’s the winners who write the history books. … Continue reading →

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On playing small ball

Posted on January 13, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

Campos reacts to Mayor Parker’s future statewide plans. And here again is my small ball take from a few weeks ago: It is time for small ball instead of the big inning. In baseball, small ball is a strategy where … Continue reading →

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We need to understand why our voters didn’t vote

Posted on January 3, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

So now we know that Battleground Texas wasn’t pursuing a base turnout-increase model for the 2014 election, for reasons that have not yet been adequately explored. I’m mad about that, but I don’t want to get bogged down in that. … Continue reading →

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On BGTX, Wendy Davis, and the future

Posted on January 2, 2015 by Charles Kuffner

This has been a pretty busy Christmas break, as far as blog-worthy news has gone, so in order to preserve the small illusion that I’m taking a breather and recharging my batteries, I’m just going to give three quick thoughts … Continue reading →

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Re-deputizing registrars

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Did you undergo the training to become a deputy voter registrar this year, perhaps at the urging of Battleground Texas? Well, you’re going to have to do it again if you want to register people for 2015 and/or 2016. A … Continue reading →

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Ty McDonald for HD17

Posted on December 19, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

As you know, the special election to replace Rep. Tim Kleinschmidt in HD17 has been set for January 6, with early voting to begin on December 29. This is the same schedule as the elections in HD123 and SD26. As … Continue reading →

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Art Murillo

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Congratulations to Art Murillo, the first person of color elected to the Lone Star College Board of Trustees. Need I mention that it took a lawsuit for this to happen? Murillo, who is Latino, at one time might have seemed … Continue reading →

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The Battleground effect in legislative races

Posted on November 7, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

So here’s a crazy idea. Rather than judge Battleground Texas by our own beliefs about how things should have gone, what say we take a look at the actual numbers of a few races and see what they tell us? … Continue reading →

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First impressions of the 2014 results

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

My initial thoughts, for what they are worth. – Let me begin by saying that for all the criticism I had of the UT/Texas Trib’s polling and the skepticism of Internet-sample methodology, they were fairly accurate in the end. In … Continue reading →

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Two in Tarrant to watch

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Tarrant County isn’t often an electoral battleground, but this time it is, at least in two legislative races. [HD94 Republican nominee Tony] Tinderholt’s race is one of two legislative contests in Tarrant County where Democrats are pinning their hopes on … Continue reading →

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Final 2014 EV thoughts

Posted on November 2, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the Chron story about how early voting went. “Each (side) is emphasizing areas of comparative advantage, but the overall pattern seems to be unimpressive in terms of overall turnout,” said Jim Henson, who directs the Texas Politics Project at … Continue reading →

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Fort Bend’s electoral future

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Fort Bend County isn’t what it used to be politically, but it’s also not what it ought to be headed for yet. It has been more than two decades since a Democrat won countywide office in Fort Bend, but swift … Continue reading →

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2014 first week EV totals

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Here they are, and here are the full 2010 EV totals. Democrats still have a lot of work to do, at least in Harris County. I sure hope it happens, that’s all I can say. We’re already seeing postmortems for … Continue reading →

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More on the voter registration numbers

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Charles Kuffner

Wayne Slater has a contrarian perspective on the voter registration numbers. Getting new voters begins with registering new people. When the secretary of state last week announced a record-high 14 million Texans are registered to vote, Battleground Texas trumpeted that … Continue reading →

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