March 18, 2025      11:00 AM

With the party at a crossroads, Texas Democrats prepare to choose a new chair

Long knives are coming for Kendall Scudder, seen by many as the clear frontrunner. After one of the party’s worst electoral setbacks in a decade, establishment Texas Democrats look to bolster party finances while grassroots activists want a “fighter” to “start mobilizing people where they’re at”

Editor’s note: Some of the SDEC members quoted in this story were granted anonymity so that they could speak freely about the race and give you a sense of the internal deliberations – SB

For the first time in more than a decade, there’s a wide open race for Chair of the Texas Democratic Party. And it’s about to come to a head.

After suffering one of the party’s worst recent electoral setbacks in 2024 and the subsequent announcement that longtime Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa would step aside, party leaders find themselves at a crossroads heading into a vote for someone new to take the reins. Next week’s vote by the State Democratic Executive Committee is “the most important election for Democrats leading up to ‘26 and ‘28 in Texas," said one party insider. “Democrats have to get it right."

There are 8 candidates officially in the running but only three of them are seen as serious contenders. The SDEC plans to use ranked choice voting – something new in this process – on March 29 to select the chair.

As is always the case, an effective chairman of a political party needs to be a workhorse interested in building party infrastructure to support candidates, not necessarily a show horse primarily concerned with firing up the base. But when it comes to getting the job in the first place the show pony usually has a leg up.

By Scott Braddock

Copyright March 18, 2025, Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved