It’s the Cost of Living, Stupid: How Texas Democrats Can Win Again

Why winning starts with groceries, rent, and paychecks.

TL;DR: Texans are getting crushed by rising prices, and Democrats have a golden opportunity to reclaim the working class by talking about what matters most: food, housing, healthcare, and childcare costs. The path to victory isn’t a mystery. It’s about staying laser-focused on lowering the cost of living and ensuring every Texan has more money in their pocket. But to do that, Democrats need to get back to the basics, get organized, and start showing up where working people live.

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A fair number of progressive folks think politics works like a vending machine: insert a bold idea, push the button, and out pops a new majority. And while it’s true that ideas matter, they work when they’re about what people actually care about.

Let me put it this way: you walk into H-E-B looking for groceries. An employee says, “Hey, detergent's on sale!” You consider it, smile, thank them, and move on. Because you’re not there for detergent. You're there to buy groceries.

But too often, party activists, out-of-touch electeds, and consultants want to lecture voters into buying detergent, telling them what issues they should be focused on. This is an unfortunate result of how much of the party has become college-educated, wealthier activists. Unfortunately, it’s what gives Democrats a reputation for being out-of-touch.

In Texas, the number one issue right now for nearly every group — Black, Latino, white, Democrat, independent — is the cost of living. And yet too many Democratic candidates are stuck talking about issues that, while important, aren’t what working families struggle with daily.

That’s how we ended up here: Democrats just lost the Latino vote in Texas for the first time in decades. A new poll shows the partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats is down to just five points. This is a crisis.

And let’s be honest: for years, many Democrats believed that demographics were destiny. If they just waited, growing minority communities would carry them to victory. As an Indian-American progressive, I always found that strategy lazy and, frankly, insulting. No community owes its vote to anyone. You have to earn it.

So let’s talk about how to win it.

The Two Big Issues Democrats Can Own

1. Cost of Living: According to Echelon Insights and other credible polling, inflation is by far the number one concern for Texans. For GOP voters, it beats every other issue besides border security. For everyone else, prices are killing them.

2. Economic Stability: Trump’s proposed tariffs are about to make things worse. Higher prices, the threat of recession, and a party openly trying to gut Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security? Democrats have the high ground. But they need to fight like it.

A Simple Slogan: More Money In Your Pocket

Democrats should brand their economic agenda clearly and loudly: We will lower the price of food, housing, childcare, healthcare, insurance, and more.

We will put more money in your pocket and make it easier to live, work, and raise a family in Texas.

And here’s the key: keep it simple. All comms should be written at an 8th-grade reading level. Don’t lose voters in policy weeds. If folks want more info? Link to a clean, well-organized page with full details on legislation and plans.

A platform:

• Lower Grocery prices & food costs

  • Pilot state non-profit grocery stores in food deserts, using state land, and exempting them from property taxes

  • Oppose tariffs that raise food prices.

  • Build a Texas State Food Reserve, like the state's rainy day fund, and apparently its impending Bitcoin reserve to stabilize food prices in times of need.

• Lower Housing prices

  • Blocking Blackrock and other large investors from buying single-family homes

  • Let cities legalize duplexes, ADUs, and small lot homes

  • Massively increase funding to build affordable housing

  • First-time homebuyer credits

  • Retrofitting commercial real estate to become housing

  • Follow Section 8 voucher reforms like in other states

• Lower Childcare & Pre-K expenses:

  • Universal childcare

  • Universal pre-K for all 3- and 4-year-olds

• Lower Healthcare Costs:

  • Expand Medicaid once and for all

  • Allow reimportation of drugs from Canada

  • Set caps on prescription drug prices

• Lower Transportation Costs:

  • Majorly investing in high-speed rail to connect the Texas Triangle

  • Higher Public Transit funding

  • A state plan for car insurance

• Lower Sales Taxes on working Texas families

  • Legalize weed and gambling

  • Tax private jets, yachts, and homes over $3M

  • Close corporate loopholes and make billionaires pay

• Raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $15

  • This is just at the end because I wanted to keep the theme of lowering the cost of living, but having more money in your pocket helps a lot with that, too!

What Texas Democrats Should Do Immediately

1. Update the freaking Website: The House Democratic policy pages haven’t been updated since 2022. It says 87th legislature, but it’s the 89th! That’s unacceptable. Put the cost of living front and center.

2. Assign each subject area to Reps across the Caucus and plan various events with legacy media, podcasters, social media influencers, and working folks to discuss the cost of living and bills that would help solve it.

3. Hold a Cost-of-Living Caucus: Make it a real organizing arm. Hold town halls in working-class zip codes focusing on the cost of living. Ask for ideas. Show up.

4. Pick Fights: Pick angry, loud fights on the cost of living with Texas Reps that are particularly close to billionaires and the super wealthy. They’re giving tax cuts to billionaires while working families are getting squeezed.

5. Make the Message Simple: Voters want to know what you do for them. Not in five paragraphs. In five words: Lower costs. Raise wages. Period.

Democrats don’t need to change who they are. They need to remember who they fight for.

Let’s fight smarter. Let’s fight harder. Let’s fight for the working class.

• June 2: The 89th Legislative Session ends.

• June 3: The beginning of the 2026 election season.

• Click here to find out what Legislative districts you’re in.

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