The Texas Democratic Party is holding their state convention in San Antonio this weekend and the leader of the parts says 2016 could be their year for a comeback.
It’s been over 20 years since the Democrats in Texas have seen a victory for a statewide race. That’s the longest political drought in the nation for a state party. And looking at the returns from the last race for governor it appears that the Democrats haven’t even begun to start closing the gap.
The problem according to the chairman of the Texas Democratic party, Gilberto Hinojosa, is that Latinos in Texas support the views of the party but they don’t vote.
“Texas is not really a red state it’s a non voting state – we have the lowest voter turn out of any state in the country and the reason it’s a non voting state is because we leave close to 4 million Hispanic votes on the table every election cycle.”
Hinojosa says there could be a reversal of political fortunes in November. He’s counting on a number of factors including the sagging appeal of GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump to conservatives and the candidates characterization of Latinos.
“Three things are going to make Hispanics go out and vote – one if their scared – one if they’re angry and one if they have some pride – Trump has scared the hell out of them – he has made them angry – and if you put someone like Julian Castro on the ballot they will have an enormous amount of pride – seeing the vice president of the United States being a Hispanic.”
Hinojosa admits flipping Texas blue would be a long shot – but if it happened that would dramatically change state and national politics.
Guest:
- Gilberto Hinojsa, Chairman of the Texas Democratic Party
