The Texas Democratic Party Needs To Live Beyond Austin
Decentralize, hire, register, and show your work.
The weekend of the SDEC meeting, I was contacted by multiple sources who informed me that certain staffers were upset about the new Chair, Kendall Scudder, decentralizing the Party. These staffers didn’t want to move, and also didn’t want to lose their jobs. I think that’s something we can all relate to and empathize with. That being said, I was aware of the drama and decided not to address it when I published, “Texas Democratic Party To Decentralize To Win Texas.” And after that, I got a few more “but did you know…” emails.
Before I proceed, I’d like to note that I 100% support this move by Kendall Scudder and am pleased that the Texas Democratic Party (TDP) will finally have a presence outside of Austin.
Today, more than ten days after the SDEC decision to decentralize, the Texas Tribune published an article titled, “Texas Democratic Party’s move to Dallas prompts top staff exodus, roils organization ahead of 2026.”
The story of Texas Democrats isn’t about which staffer packs a box in Austin. It’s about whether the Party finally meets Texans where they live.
Now, Democrats all around Texas are in a panic because they think that the TDP is in shambles. It is not. I’m going to say something that might ruffle a few feathers, but I believe Scudder should have done a clean sweep when he came on as Chair in the first place.
I don’t want to relitigate every failure of Gilberto Hinojosa’s tenure. That’s all water under the bridge now, and besides, his daughter may be a serious contender for governor, and I think she’d be a strong candidate. But let’s be honest, Hinojosa’s shortcomings weren’t his alone. There were deep staff and cultural failures baked into the party structure.
The culture at TDP was insular, cautious, and way too comfortable with losing. That wasn’t just about the Chair at the top. It was about the people around him who were supposed to execute and innovate, and too often did neither.
So when Kendall walked in, inheriting both the debt and the culture, I honestly wish he had turned the page right then and there. Staff continuity can be valuable, but only if it means avoiding the same habits that left Democrats flat-footed in 2020, 2022, and 2024. If the mission now is to decentralize, to expand, to rebuild a grassroots army in every corner of Texas, then it makes sense to have a team that’s fully aligned with that mission.
That’s what the article in the Texas Tribune is about, that’s what all of the rumors have been about, and that’s what all the drama is. Some staffers are upset. They don’t want to move because they can’t see beyond their own self-interests, and instead look at what’s best for Texas Democrats as a whole.
The perspective from Dallas.
I’ve been a Dallas DFW Democrat long enough to know Austin talks, the rest of us listen. For years, you could be organizing your heart out in DFW and still feel like the state party lived only in Austin. Ask any Party Chair or organizer here, in Harris County, West Texas, or East Texas, and they’ll probably tell you the same. The state party didn’t exist outside Austin in any meaningful, year-round way.
That’s why I support Kendall Scudder’s decision to put the headquarters in Dallas and build satellite offices around the state.
It’s a correction to years of gravitational pull that kept resources, attention, and muscle locked in one city while the rest of Texas sprawled, diversified, and changed. Dallas isn’t a consolation prize. It’s the largest media market in the state and the beating heart of the statewide map we actually have to win.
The new Chair inherited not just an office location but a culture and a hierarchy built for an Austin-first party. That’s why the previous Chair Hinojosa lost way too many times. That’s why Texas Democrats have struggled for so long. However, in a state as large as Texas, if we want to win, we must also work outside the Austin bubble. Sure, Austin has political muscles, but it can’t continue being the TDP’s only muscle in Texas.
Institutional knowledge matters, yes. But so does institutional will. If you plan to rewire the Party, you can’t do it with the same circuits.
Some folks are furious about the way the move rolled out. Fair. Transitions are messy. People have lives, leases, and families. Severance, relocation support, and short-term advisory contracts for departing staff are the right way to handle that. However, we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We can empathize with individuals while acknowledging that the strategic shift is overdue and necessary.
We need organizers and data staff where Texans actually live and vote. We need a hub that reaches millions of persuadable voters every day, without requiring a three-hour drive for a press gaggle. We need a party that doesn’t only appear during the session or in the last eight weeks of a campaign. The Party is statewide again, not a Capitol-adjacent consultancy.
If you want accountability, I’m with you. Hold the new team to numbers that matter. Organizers will be hired and deployed in target counties, volunteers will be activated, voter registrations will be netted, county parties will be serviced, dollars will be raised outside the big donor circuit, and regular public KPI updates will be provided so we can see the growth. If those numbers don’t move, then we’ll have something to complain about that isn’t a street address or a seating chart.
Until then, if you’re in DFW or anywhere else in the state, this is our moment to stop saying “the party doesn’t exist outside Austin” and prove what statewide looks like. Plug into the Dallas hub. Help stand up the satellites. Recruit candidates where we’ve been invisible.
Change makes noise. I hear it. I also hear a path that matches the map. DFW is home to approximately 8.5 million people. It’s time the Party lived here, too.
And by the way, all of this drama, which somehow warranted a Texas Tribune article 🙄, involves only four or five staffers. Making phone calls to the DNC Chair, complaining to the mainstream media, and throwing Scudder under the bus boils down to four or five people who don’t think the TDP should decentralize because the friendships they’ve built in Austin are more important.
Ultimately, this is a test of whether Texas Democrats will finally establish a party that is rooted in the communities where Texans reside.
Dallas, as the hub, with real satellites across the map, is the right call. The work now is simple and hard at the same time. Hire organizers, open doors, fill precincts, register voters, grow small-dollar donors, and show your work every week.
If those numbers don’t move, you know I’ll be the first to say so. But I’m not going to mistake insider turbulence for a strategic mistake. We’ve tried the Austin-only model for decades and watched the state move in the wrong direction. Time to try the thing a different way.
So plug in. If you’re mad, turn it into shifts and sign-ups. If you’re worried, ask for the metrics and read them. If you’re ready to win, help build the version of the Texas Democratic Party that shows up in your county year-round.
November 4: Constitutional/TX18/SD09 Election
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One of these days I’m going to meet you in person and I’m gonna give you the biggest hug.
The common Republican trope is that it's always Austin's fault, and they bash and blame the city and the Democrats here. This takes some heat and blame off. I think they'll be more cautious to take the same approach with Dallas, with as big as it is.