The Democratic Party Should Be A Little Less Washington And A Little More Texas

How Texas Democrats learned to fight and why DC should listen.

Newsweek is circulating a clip of James Talarico on all their social accounts, and he’s saying something I’ve been shouting for years, “There’s a big difference between the National Democratic Party and Texas Democrats.”

In fact, I have said directly, “Texas Democrats are nothing like the pushovers in DC. And I wish someone else was saying it.” Well, now there is. Talarico, on Newsweek’s social media pages. The reason this is important is that too many people focus on national politics. And Texas Democrats are not the same party you see on cable news. They’ve been living under a state government that treats cruelty as a governing philosophy. That means they’ve had to learn how to fight fascists the hard way, on deadlines, in courtrooms, in committee rooms, and at 2 am on the House floor, while the Beltway crowd holds another press conference about “concern.”

If you’ve tuned out because DC feels hopeless or performative, look at what’s been happening here. (Most) Texas Democrats are working-class first. Their fights are wage fights, school fights, grid fights, rent and rights fights. They use every rule in the book, including points of order, procedural traps, amendments that force a reveal, coordinated quorum tactics, coordinated lawsuits, and relentless public pressure.

This matters because when you live on the front lines of authoritarian creep, you either learn how to win ugly or you lose everything. Texas Democrats learned. They know how to jam a bad bill at the mic. How to grind a rigged map through discovery. How to organize rural counties with no paid media. How to put corporate fiefdoms on defense. That’s muscle memory built over years of playing away games, with referees who work for the other team.

Meanwhile, too many Democrats in DC treat “governing” like it’s a press release followed by a fundraiser. They negotiate themselves down, praise “norms,” and then rubber-stamp Republican frames in the name of bipartisanship, only to watch those same Republicans torch the place five minutes later. Texas Democrats don’t have that luxury. When the state aims at trans kids, immigrants, teachers, librarians, or Black voters, there’s only time to fight.

So if you’ve been sitting out because you think “Democrats are all the same,” I’m asking you to look again. In Texas, we’ve built a different muscle. A different playbook. A different spine. And if the national party wants to learn how to actually beat authoritarians, it should study the people who have been doing it with fewer resources, tougher rules, and higher stakes. Less Washington. More Texas.

We have to keep “the establishment” out of Texas.

Once we flip Texas, and we will eventually flip Texas, if we want our Texas Democrats to stay dedicated to us, the people, like Talarico, Jasmine Crockett, Gene Wu, Vikki Goodwin, Molly Cook, Al Green, Sarah Eckhardt, and so on, too many to name (because we have a lot of good ones), we have to keep “the establishment” out of Texas.

It’s never too soon to have this conversation.

Last week, I received a fundraising email from DNC Chair Ken Martin, who was talking about how we should have solid infrastructure in Texas by 2032. But like his predecessors, he’s underestimating the Lone Star State.

But how do we keep the establishment out of Texas? Or the corporate Democrats who have bought off so many of the Dems in DC who too-often vote in lock-step with Republicans?

I’m not sure I know the policy answer to that yet. Please comment or email me your thoughts. Is this best done through a voluntary pledge? Or party rules? Do we need new laws on election finance? (Obviously, we do.) Or are we completely fucked until they overturn Citizens United?

A PAC trying to skew the Michigan primaries is the same one that got us Colin Allred.

This “establishment” conversation is something I’ve been paying more and more attention to lately, because it’s primary season, and I’ve been getting a lot of emails from the Sensible Americans PAC for Mallory McMorrow for Senate in Michigan.

It initially piqued my interest, because I live in Texas and I know it’s primary season. You probably remember State Senator Mallory McMorrow from this viral moment back in 2022:

The entire nation saw her, cheered for her, and we all liked her.

Fast forward to this year, and I’m trying to understand why I’m on a fundraising list for a Michigan Senate primary race. As it turns out, the Sensible Americans PAC was the same PAC that pushed Colin Allred nationwide during the Texas primary in 2024, raising him millions of dollars, allowing him to buy ad time on TV, despite being the less favorable candidate.

Sure, politics are dirty, and it’s well within any PACs right to get involved in any campaign they want. But they did the working people of Texas wrong and really screwed us in that election by shoving the most centrist, corporate-aligned candidate down our throat. And Allred raised a lot of money from outside of Texas.

So, if you’ve been getting emails for Mallory McMorrow’s campaign too, know it’s from the same PAC that sunk Texas with Allred in 2024, which is why it feels gross.

Not only that, there is a grassroots candidate for Senate in Michigan who is more progressive than McMorrow, and isn’t taking corporate PAC dollars:

I’m not involved in Michigan politics, nor do I want to be. There’s more than enough going on in Texas. However, knowing how this PAC poured millions into the Texas primaries to stick us with Allred, who is a “middle of the road guy”, who took millions from AIPAC, and didn’t even really campaign. Now they’re begging Texans for money for Mallory McMorrow in the Michigan primary. Consider this a heads-up.

I may not have a vote in Michigan, but if I did, I would probably vote for the guy speaking at Bernie’s “Fight the Oligarchy” tour only three weeks ago, Abdul El-Sayed:

The resolution on Friday.

Earlier today, Hakeem Jeffries spoke to Al Sharpton on MSNBC about the resolution and his vote on Friday.

I’ve been on social media way too much in the last 24-hours because one of the biggest topics has been the comparison of this particular vote and Jeffries’ failure to endorse Zorhan Mamdani.

Then there’s another part of this conversation, because look how that was handled on corporate media. But look at how independent media talks about it:

Zohran Mamdani is the future of the party. So is AOC. So is James Talarico. Jeffries has already alienated a lot of younger and more diverse voters by failing to endorse Mamdani. Neither has the NY State Party, nor a bunch of other prominent NY Democrats. To my understanding, New York Democrats are just as bad as Texas Republicans when it comes to accepting other people’s religion.

And that’s the thing, it all boils down to lobbyists, corporations, and billionaires.

Schumer, Jeffries, and a few dozen other Democrats, including some from Texas, like Cuellar, Fletcher, and Gonzalez, continue to prioritize their donors’ interests over the people’s, which is why they should all be primaried.

The Congressional Progressive Caucus, led by Texan Greg Casar, voted to endorse blocking weapon sales to Israel.

“The United States cannot continue to send bombs we know will be used to commit terrible atrocities in Gaza,” CPC chair Rep. Greg Casar said in a statement.

Fifty members had already signed onto the House bill before the endorsement.

Greg Casar is the future of the party. Another Texas Democrat, who the establishment class hasn’t bought out.

If Democrats want to win the future, they need to learn from the people who’ve been fighting fascism in live fire, and that’s Texans. Not the consultants, not the brand-builders, not the email mills.

The party that beats authoritarians will be the one that fights where people actually live. That’s why Casar, Talarico, Crockett, Wu, Goodwin, Cook, Eckhardt, and a long list of others feel like the future. They’re already doing the work.

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