Never forget
Once a rock of Republican politics in Texas, Harris County has become nothing short of a nightmare for the GOP over the last four years as Hillary Clinton and Beto O’Rourke carried the county and Democrats dominated further down ballot in local races.
But as bad as it has been of late, party leaders say it’s foolish to consider Harris County blue, based on just two election cycles. They insist the party has learned key lessons over the last four years and made changes that will not just stop the Democratic trends, but lead to GOP victories in 2020 and beyond.
“We are still a strong force here,” Harris County Republican Party chairman Paul Simpson said.
He sees 2016 and 2018 as more of temporary Democratic run than a change of the guard. There have already been big changes that will affect 2020, he said, pointing to the end of straight-ticket voting, better minority community outreach and a renewed commitment to registering new voters as three things that will lift GOP candidates in Harris County.
That’s not to discount the pain of the last two election cycles. Shifting demographics and an emboldened Democratic Party that has registered new voters at record speed allowed Clinton in 2016 to win the biggest share of the vote for a Democratic presidential candidate in Harris since Texas icon Lyndon Johnson was on the ballot in 1964.
And in the governor’s race in 2018, Democrat Lupe Valdez — who ran a campaign that was mediocre at best — won Harris County over incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, becoming only the second Democratic gubernatorial candidate to carry Harris County in 25 years.
“There was shell shock,” Republican media consultant Vlad Davidiuk said.
[…]
Months before the 2018 election, Abbott’s political team was warning allies about what was happening in Harris County. That summer at a training session in San Antonio, Abbott campaign advisers told workers that Democratic-leaning voter registration groups such as Battleground Texas were making big gains registering new voters in Harris County.
Davidiuk, who was working with the Harris County Republican Party then, said others saw it coming, too.
“We didn’t have a response to that,” he said. “If there was a response, it was too fractured.”
That voter registration push has only grown the Democratic advantage at the polls the last two years.
“Our historic voter base is shrinking in both real and absolute terms,” the 2016 post election analysis says. “As a consequence, we are at risk of becoming a minority party within Harris County.”
Later it makes clear that “Donald Trump’s loss in Harris County and its down-ballot impact in 2016 could foreshadow future elections if we do not broaden our voter base.”
I’ve already said most of what there is to say about this. The rationales they give – it was Beto! straight ticket voting! Trump! why don’t those minorities like us? – are as predictable as they are pathetic and self-unaware. The straight ticket thing I’ve beaten to death (but feel free to reread this for one of my responses to that trope), but I think what we need here is to throw some numbers at these claims.
Year R Pres D Pres R Judges D Judges
=============================================
2004 584,723 475,865 535,877 469,037
2008 571,883 590,982 541,938 559,048
2012 586,073 587,044 563,654 568,739
2016 545,955 707,914 605,112 661,404
Republicans have basically not done any better at the Presidential level in Harris County since George W. Bush in 2004. They have grown some at the judicial level (the numbers you see above are the average totals from the District Court races, my go-to for measuring partisan vote totals), which highlights Trump’s extreme underperformance, but their growth (plus 70K from 2004 to 2016) is dwarfed by Democratic vote growth (plus 192K) over the same period. This is my thesis, which I’ve repeated over and over again and which has clearly not sunk in. This is the problem Republicans need to solve.
Year R Judges D Judges R Str D Str R Str% D Str%
===========================================================
2004 535,877 469,037 370,455 325,097 69.1% 69.3%
2008 541,938 559,048 343,919 391,488 63.5% 70.1%
2012 563,654 568,739 404,165 406,991 71.7% 71.6%
2016 605,112 661,404 401,663 472,030 66.4% 71.4%
These are the countywide straight ticket voting totals, and the percentage of each side’s average judicial total that came from straight ticket votes. Looked at this way, Democratic straight ticket vote total growth is proportionate to their overall vote total growth. In other words, the increase in Democratic straight ticket voters wasn’t inflating their overall strength, it was merely reflecting it. Meanwhile, fewer people voted straight ticket Republican in 2016 than they did in 2012. Sure, some of that is a reaction to Trump, but that’s still a big problem for them, and it’s not something that the elimination of straight ticket voting will help them with in 2020. Note also that Republicans have been pretty heavily dependent on straight ticket voting as well. I do not understand the assumption that its removal will help them.
Year Voter Reg R Pres% R Judge% D Pres% D Judge%
======================================================
2004 1,876,296 31.2% 28.6% 25.4% 25.0%
2008 1,892,656 30.2% 28.6% 31.2% 29.5%
2012 1,942,566 30.2% 29.0% 30.2% 29.3%
2016 2,182,980 25.0% 27.7% 32.4% 30.3%
The first column is the total number of registered voters in Harris County in the given year, and the percentages are the percentage of each of the total registered voter population. As a share of all registered voters, Donald Trump did worse than John Kerry, while Hillary Clinton did better than Dubya. The share of all voters choosing Democratic judicial candidates increased twenty percent from 2004 to 2016, while the share of all voters choosing Republican judicial candidates declined by three percent. This is what I mean when I say that the Republicans first and foremost have a “not enough voters” problem in Harris County. Their second problem is that they have no clue what to do about it.
For what it’s worth, here’s a similar comparison for the off years:
Year R Judges D Judges R Str D Str R Str% D Str%
===========================================================
2002 333,009 270,564 185,606 171,594 55.7% 63.4%
2014 359,842 297,812 254,006 210,018 70.6% 70.5%
2018 531,013 651,975 410,654 515,812 77.3% 79.1%
Year Voter Reg R Judge% D Judge%
===================================
2002 1,875,777 17.8% 14.4%
2014 2,044,361 17.6% 14.6%
2018 2,307,654 23.0% 28.3%
Couple things to note here. One is that there wasn’t much in the way of growth for either party from 2002 to 2014, though as we know there were some ups and downs in between. The 2018 election was a lot like a Presidential election in terms of turnout – you’ve seen me use 2012 as a point of comparison for it before – but one in which the Dems did a much better job. No Republican, not even Ed Emmett, came close to getting 600,000 votes. Here, I’ll agree that having unpopular politicians at the top of the ballot, like Ted Cruz and Dan Patrick and Ken Paxton, as well as having to fly under the Trump banner, helped propel Dems, in part because of former Republicans crossing over. But they were starting from a lower point to begin with.
Note, by the way, the jump in voter registrations from 2012 to 2014. Mike Sullivan deserves some credit for that, as he was the first Tax Assessor in a long time to not be hostile to voter registration, but this was also the point at which Dems started really focusing on registering voters. For sure, that has helped, and I’ve no doubt that Abbott’s people had reason to be alarmed going into 2018. I find it kind of amusing that Republicans are turning to voter registration themselves as a way forward. I have to wonder if that will lead to any bills getting advanced that would make voter reg easier and more convenient. My guess is still No, on the grounds that they probably figure they can throw money at the problem and would still rather have it be hard for Dems, but we’ll see.
I could go on, but you get the point. And as a reminder, the numbers themselves aren’t the whole story about why Republicans are struggling and will continue to do so in Harris County:
Simpson, for one, is glad to see the parade of Democratic presidential contenders coming to Harris County because it puts their ideas — particularly on climate change — front and center. Let them bring their calls for banning fossil fuels, he said.
“They don’t want us to eat beef, drill for oil or even use straws.”
Because it there’s one thing younger voters really hate, it’s trying to solve climate change. Way to be on top of the trends there, dude.
Presidential year with the Russian Cheeto at the top of the ticket, the Trumpians are fooling themselves, They could however be aiming at 2022, hoping that Trump will no longer be the fool they adore as the Republican face. That there is a very strong possibility.
Is there any Harris County Democratic Party concern about a potentially very terrible split in the HD 148 special election in which no one gets 50% of the vote and the two Republicans are the top two vote getters and have an all-Republican runoff? There are currently 2R-12D-1I in this race, and it almost looks like the Harris County Republican Party planned it this way.
“I do not understand the assumption that its [straight party voting] removal will help them.”
Kuff, I think you underestimate angry old white people’s capacity (and availability of time!) to show up and tick every race’s box for Republicans
My favorite part is when they repeatedly gave the microphone to Vlad, who got fired earlier this year for Holocaust revisionism.
The county party will remain underwater for the foreseeable future. Their best bet is to shore up their incumbents and strongholds through redistricting but given the shifting voting patterns among college educated white population and increased minority turnout there is little hope without a complete rebranding.
Antagonism towards millennials and their issues issues- ie No answer for the student debt crisis or worse blaming the students.
No overarching plan on lowering healthcare costs.
Allegiance to social conservatism.
Climate change denial.
Opposition to any form of gun sale regulation.
You can talk a good game on outreach all you want but unless you are willing to make serious adjustments on all the above fronts Republicans will continue to lose ground year after year until the county is as blue as Dallas.
Blank, even if that were to happen, it will be remedied next November. The legislature doesn’t meet next year.