Morgan Kirkpatrick was exhausted.
The longtime Lubbock resident and State Board of Education candidate spent most of her morning with other local Democratic candidates campaigning door-to-door ahead of early voting next week. From there, she went to Mahon Library in downtown Lubbock, where more than a dozen volunteers were already writing postcards to voters for her campaign.
Out of chairs, the former teacher opted to sit on the floor and get to work. Yes, she was physically drained, but she is even more tired of seeing Republicans run unopposed in local elections in Texas’ South Plains region her entire adult life.
“It’s hard because the Democratic Party doesn’t have the infrastructure here like the Republican Party does,” said Kirkpatrick, 39. “Democrats here have always felt like we had to be quiet. But if we were a little louder, people would understand this is a battleground that’s up for grabs.”
Democrats have long imagined a blue wave would roll in to break through the conservative landscape in the heart of the South Plains. It hasn’t happened.
In 2016, 66% of voters in Lubbock County elected former president Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Beto O’Rourke inched a little closer in 2018 — O’Rourke received 35% of the vote in the county while U.S. Senator Ted Cruz had 64%. Trump won the county again in 2020 over President Joe Biden. Gov. Greg Abbott handily won the county over O’Rourke in 2022.
In fact, it is conservative population centers like Lubbock and Amarillo, about 125 miles north, and the state’s suburbs that have kept Democrats from winning any statewide race in two decades.
Still, Democrats in Lubbock — women in particular — are hopeful this year. Fueled by a mix of enthusiasm for Vice President Kamala Harris’s nomination and ire over abortion restrictions and other far-right policies, left-leaning women are hoping it’s enough to break through conservative strongholds.
“I feel like Harris has given us reason to envision a win,” Kirkpatrick said.
[…]
Abortion is not on the federal ballot this year, but it is in 10 states, according to KFF. It’s also on the ballot in Amarillo, a city that has consistently voted for Republicans each election cycle. Voters will decide if the city should put in place a “travel ban” like Lubbock’s that restricts the use of the city’s roads for a woman seeking on abortion in another state.
If it passes, people can be sued by Amarillo residents for a minimum of $10,000 if they “aid and abet” a pregnant woman seeking an abortion. This can be by providing transportation, donating to abortion fund networks, or offering any information that would lead to an abortion, regardless of where the person giving the instructions is located.
According to the KFF survey, abortion has become the most important issue for women under 30. The so-called sanctuary city ordinance has far-reaching consequences for people and businesses that violate it, as any organization that uses the mail for items that could produce an abortion would be declared criminal organizations, among other reasons. The ordinance has been criticized as turning neighbor against neighbor by city leaders.
“There is so much more that unites us than divides us,” said Lindsay London, co-founder of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance, or ARFA. “And we’re seeing that voters are ready to embrace that at both the local and national level.”
ARFA, a nonpartisan organization, has been at the forefront of the fight against the ordinance. London said she sees a similarity in how Harris’s campaign has brought together “reasonable” people from across the political spectrum through shared values.
I’d say that the big suburbs like Montgomery County are more responsible for Texas remaining red just because there’s a lot more people there, but the margins in the counties that include Lubbock and Amarillo (and I’ll throw in Abilene as well) are awe-inducing:
Lubbock Potter Randall Taylor
Year GOP Dem GOP Dem GOP Dem GOP Dem
====================================================
2008 68.0 31.3 69.2 29.8 80.9 18.3 72.3 26.7
2012 69.9 28.8 71.5 26.9 83.4 15.2 76.1 22.5
2016 66.3 28.3 68.5 26.7 80.0 15.4 72.7 22.0
2020 65.3 33.1 68.5 29.8 78.5 19.8 71.7 26.5
2020 represented a little bit of progress, but there’s still a long way to go. I’ve been an advocate for Democrats putting resources into these cities, with the pitch that they have more in common with the big cities than they do with the surrounding rural areas. Start at the local level and work your way up as needed, but get some different perspectives out there and fight them on the issues. Maybe there will be some evidence from this year’s returns to encourage the development of that approach. I’ll be sure to take a look. I’ll also be sure to plug my interview with Lindsay London of the Amarillo Reproductive Freedom Alliance because they’re doing great work and they deserve your attention.
Anyway, there’s a lot more to this story so give it a read. Whatever happens this year, if we’re going to be serious about winning in 2026 and 2028, we need to have a plan for this part of the state as well.
That part of the world is serious Bible Belt country. Some gas stations set their prices to align with the numbering of popular verses.