Texas Democrats Are Waking Up

Want to flip Texas? Sign up to be a precinct chair today.

This weekend, the Texas Progressive Caucus held its quarterly meeting, and for the first time in a long time, I walked away with something rare in Texas Democratic politics: hope. Not cautious optimism, not wishful thinking, but real, fired-up, chest-thumping hope.

We had heavy-hitting guests: Senator Roland Gutierrez, Senator Nina Turner, from Ohio, and our new Texas Democratic Party Chair, Kendall Scudder, who’s already raised $100,000 since taking the reins. But the message was more important than the money: we’re finally getting serious about building power from the ground up.

The ghosts of the Democratic past.

Of course, if you’ve been a Texas Democrat for more than five minutes, you’ve had your heart broken. We’ve been teased before. We’ve watched promising cycles fizzle. We’ve been out-organized, underfunded, and overwhelmed. And we’ve been dismissed as irrelevant, even by our own voters.

I recently spoke to a young person who told me, flat-out, that Democrats in Texas are no better than Republicans, just corporate shills in blue. I asked them how that could be true when our party’s broke, in the minority, and clinging to progressive ideals with the grip of a starving man on bread. However, perception is everything, and for years, the party failed to show up in a way that earned trust.

Let’s be real: under Gilberto Hinojosa, the party was stagnant. Everyone knew it. But now, with Hinojosa gone and Scudder in, there’s real movement again. And not just at the top.

Scudder revealed this weekend that there are over 9,000 precinct chair positions across Texas, and Democrats have filled only half. Half. That’s why we’re losing. That’s why Republicans run circles around us, even in places where we outnumber them on values.

Precinct Chairs: The secret weapon of the right, and our blind spot.

Republicans treat their precinct chairs like royalty. They give them titles, awards, and recognition. These folks attend city council meetings and ensure everyone knows precisely what precinct they represent. Democrats? We can barely fill the seats, let alone empower the people in them.

But Scudder has a plan to fill every seat, train chairs, support them, give them tools, and make them matter. If we had 9,000 precinct chairs doing the work in Texas, we wouldn’t just flip this state; we’d shake the country.

🎴 Do You Want To Help Save Texas? Please Become A Precinct Chair.

Meanwhile, in HD-106, there’s a guy named Kelvin Leaphart who’s running on the Texas Democratic Party platform, literally word for word, while bashing Democrats and running as an “independent.” He told me a county chair once pressured him to talk about LGBTQ+ rights, and that’s why he turned on the party. I’m skeptical. I know the chair he’s talking about, and that’s not how they operate.

But this is the paradox: people who claim to believe in the exact things Democrats are fighting for, while simultaneously telling others not to vote for Democrats. Whether it’s ego, ignorance, or just spite, I don’t know. But I know this: you can’t change the system by tearing down the only viable mechanism trying to move it in the right direction.

The brewing storm in Tarrant County.

I’ve been hearing whispers out of Tarrant County. Progressives there want to primary every Democrat on the ballot, including my own state rep (which I’m not on board with). They’re tired of moderate consultants and centrist strategy. Some of those frustrations are fair, I won’t pretend they aren’t. But without organizing, without building infrastructure, without precinct chairs and canvassers and voter registration drives, you’re not leading a movement, you’re throwing rocks at the wind.

The irony? The progressives outnumber the moderates in Tarrant. But the moderates are organized. Sound familiar?

We’ve seen this movie before, in Collin County. There, progressives rose up, challenged the establishment, and won the party chair seat. Let’s see if they can now build something lasting because in Collin County, Republican precinct chairs still outnumber Democratic precinct chairs.

Now More Than Ever: Get involved, get organized.

If you’ve ever thought about getting involved, now is the time. Not next cycle. Not when things “get better.” Right now.

Become a precinct chair, volunteer for your local Democratic Party, or, if your energy burns hotter, join the Texas Progressive Caucus. This is the moment when we stop asking for permission and start building the political power we’ve been waiting for.

And if your local party isn’t doing right? If they’re gatekeeping, playing consultant games, or coasting in safe seats? Find the people ready to challenge them, and support their primary campaigns. We don’t owe loyalty to individuals. We owe it to the people of Texas, the communities counting on us, and the vision we say we believe in.

Because this isn’t just about flipping Texas. It’s about transforming it.

Republicans aren’t winning because they’re smarter or better. They’re winning because they are organized down to the block level, and we’ve let too many of our own blocks go quiet.

You want to change things?

Stop waiting for someone else to fix it. Get involved today!

Build or be buried.

I don’t know if Texas will flip blue in 2026 or 2028. But I know this: we’re closer than ever, if we do the work. If we train organizers. If we fundraise. If we claim our precincts. If we talk to people, listen to them, bring them in, and stop playing defense.

It’s not glamorous. It’s not fast. But it’s real.

We’ve got the platform. We’ve got the people. Now we need to show up.

Let’s build. Let’s fight. Let’s win.

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Bayou City Sludge

posted the schedule for the first part of the week in the Texas Legislature. I’ll be watching. Stay tuned.

• April 22: Early Voting Begins

• April 29: Early Voting Ends

• May 3: Local and County Elections

• 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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