The Republican Party of Texas has vowed a “major investment” in South Texas legislative races amid ongoing criticism from county-level leaders over its fundraising and voter outreach efforts.
On Monday, the party announced a commitment to knock on more than 100,000 doors ahead of the Nov. 5 elections, with a focus on South Texas and other districts it considers competitive.
“This is a pivotal moment for Texas, and we are doubling down on our commitment to engage directly with voters across the state,” said Texas GOP Chair Abraham George. “We must work to expand our Republican majorities in the Texas Legislature and we have a clear path to do so.
The announcement comes amid ongoing concerns by some Republicans about the Texas GOP’s donor and voter outreach initiatives. Last year, the party recorded near-decade lows in fundraising, corporate donors and individual contributors. But the Texas GOP was able to weather those hits thanks to major donations from a handful of far-right oil billionaires who, along with former chair Matt Rinaldi, have sought to cleanse the party of its more moderate members.
Even so, the party’s finances have remained precarious. Ahead of its May convention, the Texas GOP had just five employees — compared to 50 at the same point in 2020, the last presidential cycle. Last month, the party reported that its 2024 convention ran roughly $600,000 over budget and resulted in a staggering, $382,000 loss. From mid-May until early September, the Texas GOP’s most important fundraising position was vacant. And in its last financial disclosure, from June, the Texas GOP reported having $2.3 million on-hand — $1 million less than at the same time in 2020.
The ongoing strains have prompted some county-level GOP leaders to question George, who said during his campaign for chair that the party needed a monthly, $1.5 million budget and more than 100 staff members ahead of the presidential election.
Since last week, at least 29 county-level party chairs have signed an open letter warning that the Texas GOP’s “grave and deteriorating” fundraising and voter outreach efforts could make some candidates vulnerable in November. Recent polling has found former President Donald Trump leading Vice President Kamala Harris by only 5 points — and that U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is just 2 points ahead of U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. If sustained, that trend could jeopardize down-ballot Republican candidates in November, the letter said.
The Texas GOP’s “current cash on hand should allow it to financially survive through the Nov. 5 election, but it will not allow for much else,” the letter said. “Fundraising has evaporated nearly entirely. The current chair appears to be either unwilling or unable to raise major funds.”
The letter also demanded that the Texas GOP detail its efforts to expand mail voting. Absent a “well-funded, statewide” initiative, it said, “we will get destroyed in mail ballots which will narrow Trump’s margin, threaten Cruz’s re-election, and harm all of our targeted down ballot races.”
I would certainly like to believe that incompetence, lack of cash, and general backbiting between the state Republican Party and various county parties will lead to underperformance on their part, but:
1. Republican candidates still have crap-tons of money.
2. It’s not really clear to me how much the Republican Party of Texas is responsible for campaign efforts.
3. Greg Abbott has a better campaign machine at his disposal anyway.
As Democrats, we are used to seeing stories about various political people wringing their hands in public over the real or perceived weaknesses of some other politician or campaign. It can be hard to separate the personal grievances from the real issues. I have no idea how big a deal any of this is.
All that said, I do think that the Republicans here have gotten lazy and complacent, and don’t seem to recognize how far out of step they are with general public opinion. That’s not a problem for them until it is. I don’t expect the state to turn blue this year – that has been the surest bet in politics for a long time now – but I do think conditions are good for Dems to get uncomfortably (for them) close to winning. Whatever drove this story, I have to think there will be a lot more of it being publicly aired if that does happen.
Oh, and if they want to run a decent mail ballot operation, maybe they should start by getting their guy at the top of the ticket to stop demonizing voting by mail. Just a thought. Also, too, there are concerns about the Trump campaign’s ground game, which could have some overlap here. I don’t think the two are directly connected – the national stuff is mostly about swing states, as you’d think – but there is a correlation between national performance and state-level performance. Make of that what you will.