Texas Democratic Party Doing Outreach to 1 Million Unregistered Voters This Week
- Sanford Nowlin
- Voters waiting in line to cast their ballots at Lion’s Field in San Antonio.
The Texas Democratic Party on Monday launched a week-long scramble to contact 1 million unregistered voters across the state and get them onto the rolls before November.
The effort is the largest such outreach by the TDP to date and part of its bid to shift the state blue, or at least purple, this election cycle.
Texas Democrats estimate that there are 5 million-plus unregistered voters in the state, many of whom are younger and people of color — both groups likely to vote blue, assuming they make it to the polls.
“If they vote, we’re pretty sure they’re going to vote Democrat, so registering those voters is key to our path to victory,” said Luke Warford, director of voter expansion for the TDP. “This is the biggest week-long push we’ve had.”
The party is calling and texting unregistered voters and giving them prompts to go to a website where they can request a voter registration form. Texas is one of just 11 states that doesn’t have online voter registration, and the pandemic has limited the party’s ability to reach voters face-to-face.
October 5 is the last day Texans can register to vote in the November 3 nationwide election.
In the 2018 midterms, Democrats reclaimed a dozen Texas House seats from Republicans, and the party is counting on President Donald Trump’s unpopularity to drive strong turnout in November.
Political observers also point out that Texas’ shifting demographics aren’t favorable to the GOP, which under Trump has doubled down on appealing to an aging, mostly white base.
Even so, the TDP is fighting to make up for lost ground in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1976.
“What happens in November in Texas will be the result of a lot of hard work in addition to the changing demographics,” Warford said.
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