Blowout midterm losses leave Texas Democrats again searching for statewide spark

Throughout the midterm campaign, Beto O’Rourke and other Texas Democrats tried to chip away at Republicans’ lopsided advantage in rural areas, pushing policies with bipartisan appeal like building more rural hospitals and expanding broadband access. O’Rourke was rewarded for his efforts with about 21 percent of the vote in counties with less than 50,000 registered voters, down 5 percentage points from his 2018 Senate run. Among those 207 counties, O’Rourke received fewer than 275,000 votes this year, a fraction of the more than 3.5 million he tallied statewide, according to unofficial results.

Fresh off a blowout loss in Tuesday’s midterms, some Democrats are taking their rebuke from rural Texas as a clear sign to narrow their focus on urban liberal strongholds, where they also lost ground this year as millions of registered voters stayed home. Others are taking the drubbing as a lesson to diversify the statewide ticket next year, arguing their only path to victory is with Black and Latino candidates who may inspire voters who look like them to turn out in higher numbers. Among the candidates who tried to court rural voters and disenchanted Republicans was Mike Collier, the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, who emphasized his background as a former Republican and touted endorsements from numerous GOP politicians. Ali Zaidi, Collier’s campaign manager, said he “would not spend any time in the rural areas anymore” if he were to run a future statewide campaign in Texas. “I think Democrats, myself included, we haven't reckoned with the reality that we can put out moderate candidates who take all the right positions in order to produce electoral success on paper and in focus groups,” Zaidi said. “But out in the real world, we were competing against Fox News, which is running every night. So our four weeks of advertising isn't enough to move the needle there.”