During a panel at KUT Festival on Saturday, Democratic state Senator Sarah Eckhardt and state Senator Nathan Johnson outlined their party's strategy for gaining ground in Texas this election cycle. Eckhardt is running for comptroller while Johnson is seeking the attorney general position. Both pointed to recent developments suggesting Democrats may have found conditions favorable for breaking a 32-year drought without winning a statewide seat.
The optimism centers on a special election in February in Tarrant County, where Democrat Taylor Rehmet defeated Leigh Wambsganss, a Trump-backed candidate, by 14 percentage points. The result carries particular weight because Trump won the same district by 17 points just two years earlier. "Taylor Rehmet, guy's never run for office, [and] he just won a 40-year Republican seat," Johnson told the crowd. "It's already different on the ground right now."
State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate, appears positioned to capitalize on this momentum. A Texas Public Opinion Research survey shows Talarico ahead of both Republicans competing for the seat: incumbent Senator John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Eckhardt attributed the polling results to the Republican Party "going too far even for its own party frankly."
Democrats are employing a comprehensive approach this cycle by fielding candidates in every election, from state House and Senate races to congressional seats, statewide judgeships, and positions on the State Board of Education. This blanket strategy aims to drive turnout even in heavily conservative districts. "It's a compounding effect with Talarico, and [Democratic gubernatorial candidate] Gina Hinojosa, and Nathan Johnson, and me, and everybody else on the statewide ticket," Eckhardt said. "We will be working as a team, going all across the state in order to run up the score and win in this wave."
External factors may also favor Democrats. Trump's approval rating ranges from 33% to 40%, depending on the survey, driven largely by economic uncertainty, elevated gas prices following the start of the war in Iran, and his immigration agenda. Johnson cited what he called the "inhumanity of ICE," arguing it has shifted public sympathy on the immigration issue. "The inhumanity of ICE has flipped the entire issue on them, and they've awakened a sympathy from people that wasn't there," Johnson said.
The Republican establishment has also signaled vulnerability. In April, Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick acknowledged the GOP could face a "tough time" maintaining its majority in the Texas House and U.S. Senate, citing party infighting between Cornyn and Paxton.
