{"id":36398,"date":"2019-04-02T02:20:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-02T02:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36398"},"modified":"2019-04-02T02:20:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T02:20:32","slug":"texas-might-be-a-battleground-one-can-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=36398","title":{"rendered":"Texas might be a battleground? One can hope"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Beto O’Rourke’s near-electoral miss in November 2018 has managed to turn Texas from a reliably red, staunchly Republican state into a potential battleground state in the 2020 presidential election.<\/p>\n

Maybe . . . that is.<\/p>\n

O’Rourke is now running for president of the United States. He damn near was elected to the U.S. Senate this past year. He came within 2 percentage points short of beating Ted Cruz. His close finish energized a once-moribund Texas Democratic Party.<\/p>\n

So he decided to parlay that enthusiasm into a national bid.<\/p>\n

Now, does his presence amid a gigantic — and still growing — field of Democratic presidential contenders automatically convert Texas into a battleground? Of course not.<\/p>\n

He is going to campaign like all hell for Texas convention delegates. If he somehow manages to become the party’s presidential nominee –or even end up on the Democratic ticket as a VP nominee — then the state becomes the site of pitched battle between the two parties.<\/p>\n

This is a dream come true for many of us. Me included.<\/p>\n

I long have wanted Texas to become a two-party state. Even when Democrats controlled every public office in sight. It shifted dramatically over the past three decades. The GOP has control of every statewide office.<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates haven’t given us the time of day. Why bother? The state’s electoral votes are going to the Republicans. So, the GOP has taken us for granted; Democrats have given up on us.<\/p>\n

Beto O’Rourke well might have changed all that.<\/p>\n

So, we might be in store for a barrage, a torrent, a tidal wave of political ads as we enter the summer and fall of 2020.<\/p>\n

Forgive me for saying this, but I would welcome it.<\/p>\n\n

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Beto O’Rourke’s near-electoral miss in November 2018 has managed to turn Texas from a reliably red, staunchly Republican state into a potential battleground state in the 2020 presidential election. Maybe . . . that is. O’Rourke is now running for president of the United States. He damn near was elected to the U.S. Senate this … Continue reading Texas might be a battleground? One can hope<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7225,6486,7043,1941,4602],"class_list":["post-36398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-2020-election","tag-battleground-states","tag-beto-orourke","tag-gop","tag-texas-democratic-party"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36400,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36398\/revisions\/36400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}