Only 27% Of Eligible Voters In Texas Voted For Trump

This is what fascism looks like. But we still have the numbers to win.

Rest in Peace, Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman. 🕊️

This morning, a Trump supporter walked into the home of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and murdered her and her husband in cold blood. He then turned his gun on Senator John Hoffman and his wife. One couple is dead. The other is barely hanging on.

And while law enforcement confirms this was a politically motivated assassination, complete with a hit list of 70 other Democratic lawmakers, the right-wing media machine is already lying about who pulled the trigger.

They’ve spent years feeding their base a diet of hate, calling us invaders, groomers, Marxists, and demons. They’ve normalized political violence. They’ve fantasized about it. And now that it’s happened, they’re trying to pretend it wasn’t one of their own.

But we aren’t fooled. And we aren’t outnumbered.

Because the truth is, Texas isn’t red. America isn’t red. What we are is a country drowning in disinformation and voter suppression, and worst of all, a profound, dangerous disillusionment. The biggest bloc in this state, every single cycle, isn’t Republicans or Democrats. It’s people who don’t vote. And that’s not on them. That’s on all of us.

Today, we saw millions in the streets. That’s power.

If you’ve got rage in your chest and nowhere to put it, start by convincing just one person in your life that their vote matters. Then convince another. And then another. Because 11 million people in Texas stayed home in 2024. We don’t need to flip minds, we need to wake them up.

A nation on fire.

It’s the same game every time. Deny. Project. Distract. But make no mistake, this shooter was one of theirs. Trump voter. Far-right ideologue. A product of everything they’ve built over the last decade.

Let’s stop pretending we don’t know how we got here.

Let’s stop pretending the rhetoric of “traitors,” “invaders,” and “enemies of the people” doesn’t have a body count.

And while we were still learning how to spell the victims’ names, the country caught fire.

In Austin, the Texas Capitol was evacuated after a credible threat was made against lawmakers attending the No Kings protest. The suspect was pulled over in La Grange and arrested before he could follow through. But that’s how close we were. Again.

In Virginia, another man. Another “lone wolf.” He drove his SUV into a crowd of protesters leaving a No Kings rally. One person was hit. Thank goodness no one died. But that doesn’t mean it won’t happen tomorrow, or the day after, or the day after that.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, yesterday, the US Marines detained a US civilian on American soil, for the first time in modern history. He was a 27-year-old Black veteran on his way to a VA appointment. Detained in LA like we’re living in Chile in 1973.

This isn’t the start of something. This is already happening.

And I wish I could tell you that was the worst of it. But it wasn’t.

Because while all this was unfolding, while people were bleeding, while families were grieving, while we were trying to keep each other safe, GOP lawmakers were online posting sheep memes, calling Democrats the real threat, and insisting none of this had anything to do with them.

They’ve spent years calling for war. And now that it’s here, they want to play dumb.

This is what fascism looks like.

And unless we fight it, it will only get worse.

Right-wing disinformation has already taken hold.

Within hours of the shooting, the right-wing propaganda machine did what it always does. Lie, deflect, and blame the victims.

Instead of taking a single breath to acknowledge the gravity of what happened, they started pushing a new narrative. The shooter was a Democrat.

The New York Post, the same garbage outlet that runs more cover for fascists than Pravda did for Stalin, pushed out a wildly irresponsible claim that the shooter was a “leftist,” and within minutes, it was being repeated by the usual ghouls online.

Then came the flood.

Look at the replies to Texas Speaker Dustin Burrows’ post. He put out a carefully worded, standard-issue condolence message about the shooting. Nothing brave. Nothing controversial. And yet?

His own side absolutely buried him.

Screenshot after screenshot, people calling him a traitor, a “radical Democrat,” accusing the victims of being murdered by their own party, blaming Burrows for not being cruel enough. One guy even posted sheep. Sheep. After a political assassination.

Then the Texas House Democratic Caucus posted a letter asking the governor what steps the state would take to protect elected officials after an apparent, coordinated attack.

You’d think that would be met with at least a moment of bipartisan seriousness.

Nope. Scroll through the replies and you’ll find:

• That the Democrats staged it.

• That Trump is the real victim.

• That this was “theater.”

• That Democrats deserved it.

• That they should all “shut up and fight.”

• The Communist Party paid for the protest.

This is what the GOP does now. They flood the zone with lies so fast, so shamelessly, that by the time facts emerge, they’ve already planted the seed of denial in millions of people’s minds. It doesn’t matter that it’s not true. It never did. Once a Trumper believes something, they think it forever, no matter how many times it’s debunked.

They are manufacturing the violence, denying the cause, and demanding your silence in the same breath.

You’re not crazy for seeing it. You’re not alone in feeling like the gaslighting is the point. It is.

They’re not doing this because they’re strong. They’re doing it because they’re afraid of what happens when we finally out-organize them. And we can.

But only if we stop letting them write the story.

The long, violent road that brought us here.

This didn’t start today. This started years ago, when one political party decided that they’d rather burn the country down than share power with the rest of us.

It started when they started calling journalists the “enemy of the people.”

When they painted immigrants as “invaders.”

When they told their followers that Democrats were communists, pedophiles, and demons. When they made it acceptable to believe your neighbor was your enemy just because they voted differently.

It started when Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” When Kyle Rittenhouse became a conservative folk hero. When January 6 became something to defend instead of condemn.

And it didn’t stop.

It got worse. Louder. Bolder. Bloodier.

In Texas, we’ve watched this shit fester up close. And no one embodies it more than Bo French, the chair of the Tarrant County GOP, who just a few days ago tweeted that “a few well-placed snipers” would solve the problem of protests.

A major Republican Party leader said that government snipers should be used on American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.

And he wasn’t fired. He wasn’t censured. He wasn’t even told to delete the tweet.

Because this is who they are now. This is their movement.

A party that jokes about murdering protesters and then acts shocked when someone takes them literally.

They’ve cultivated a culture where violence is expected, where every election loss is illegitimate, where every journalist is a liar, where every protest is a threat, and where every Democrat is a target.

This is a long road. And it’s been paved with every cowardly Democrat who thought we could compromise with people who don’t believe in democracy. Every newspaper that called it “populism” instead of what it really is. Every mainstream pundit who told us to “focus on the economy” while GOP officials plotted coups in plain sight.

Well, here we are.

A lawmaker and her husband are dead. Protesters are being hit by cars. The military is detaining civilians. Republican leaders are tweeting out sniper fantasies.

This is authoritarianism in the open.

And the only thing that will stop it is us.

The numbers don’t lie. Texas Isn’t Red. It’s non-voting.

Let’s stop calling Texas a red state.

Texas is a non-voting state. A disillusioned state. A state that’s been lied to, gerrymandered, purged, and then blamed for not “showing up” while the people in power do everything in their power to keep us out.

Here’s what actually happened in 2024:

• 18.8% of eligible Texans weren’t even registered to vote.

• 31.5% were registered… and didn’t cast a ballot.

• That’s over 11 million people who stayed home.

Only about 6.4 million people voted Republican in that election.

Do the math.

We outnumber them. Always have.

They know it. That’s why they lie. That’s why they cheat. That’s why they suppress, intimidate, purge, and redraw maps until they look like snakes eating themselves because they know the truth.

If we turned out in full force, they would never win another statewide race in their lives.

This isn’t a fight against voters who disagree with us. It’s a fight for the millions of Texans who’ve been told their vote doesn’t matter. Who’ve been made to feel small, ignored, excluded, and abandoned. And sometimes? They’re right to feel that way. Because for decades, the system has ignored them. The parties have failed them.

But now the stakes are different.

This isn’t about policy debates or campaign slogans. This is about whether or not we live in a state where it’s safe to exist as a Democrat. As a woman. As a trans kid. As a union worker. As a protester. As a human being.

We don’t need to flip MAGA minds. We don’t need to “convince” the people waving AR-15s at school board meetings. We need to reach those who have never been asked. The ones who’ve never been shown their power. The ones who think it’s too late.

Because it’s not.

They want you to think we’re losing. But we aren’t.

Organize. Register. Talk. Vote. Survive.

Here’s the part where I tell you what the hell to do with all this rage.

Because I know what it feels like, watching the news, doomscrolling through body counts, wondering if any of this still matters. I’ve felt it too. That helplessness. That weight.

But it does matter. And you are not helpless.

Organize.

If you’re not already in your local County Democratic Party, get in. Show up to the next meeting. Introduce yourself. Bring a friend. If it’s a mess, help clean it up. If it’s stagnant, shake it up. If it’s good, make it stronger.

Join the Texas Progressive Caucus. Get on their mailing list. Follow their calls to action. Support the people who are willing to fight.

Sign up with Powered by People. That’s Beto’s org, and they’re still out there registering voters, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood. Join them.

Support Mothers Against Greg Abbott. These women have done more actual outreach, voter education, and organizing than half the state party combined.

Register voters. Talk to your neighbors. Knock on doors. Start small and build.

And if you’ve already done that? Do it again.

The goal is to survive and ensure that our people survive alongside us.

So don’t go quiet. Don’t go numb. Don’t wait for someone else to fix it.

Be the one who shows up. Be the one who calls. Be the one who asks someone, anyone, “Hey, are you registered?”

We don’t need permission to take this state back. We need persistence.

And we already have the numbers.

We are not powerless. We are not alone. And we are not done.

You want to know what gives me hope?

15,000 people in Houston. 10,000 more in Dallas. 8,000 in Austin. That’s not fear. That’s power.

From Los Angeles to DC, to Virginia, to right here in Texas, millions of us hit the streets today. Not because we’re radicals. Not because we’re violent. But because we are done letting these people write the rules in blood.

This moment is terrifying because it’s supposed to be. That’s how authoritarianism works. Scare you. Silence you. Make you feel small.

But this moment is also an opening. Because when people are out there in numbers this big, something shifts. We stop feeling alone. We start remembering what collective power feels like. And the people in charge? The ones clinging to power with guns and gerrymanders and lies?

They feel it too. And they’re scared shitless.

Because hope doesn’t live in thoughts and prayers. Hope lives in action. Hope lives in showing up anyway. Hope lives in organizing despite it all. Hope lives in saying, “You don’t get to kill us into silence.”

Thousands of people in Minnesota showed up today to protest and mourn their leaders, and to tell Republicans, “We aren’t scared of you.” They did this after their own was murdered, after they were told to shelter in place. See:

Source

We are not powerless. We are not alone. And we are not done.

So, if you’re reading this and you’re shaking with rage, hold on to it. If you’re heartbroken, good. Let that grief sharpen you. And if you’re scared, that means you still give a damn.

Now use it.

Talk to your people. Register your neighbor. Volunteer. Donate. March. Vote. Fight.
Do one thing. And then do another. And another. And another.

Because this is our moment.

Not theirs.

Ours.

We can take it back. And we will.

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