Election Day is here and Republicans are expected to make big gains in the midterms, including taking control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
With Tuesday providing one last opportunity for voters to cast a ballot, Republicans are highlighting the efforts they’ve undertaken throughout the state to drum up support.
Republicans boasted reaching five million Texans as part of their work this election cycle in a news release issued to The Monitor, listing recent victories in South Texas as fruits of that labor.
“With over 5 million voter contacts made, the Texas Victory Team is ready for November 8th,” RNC Spokeswoman Macarena Martinez said in a statement. “Unlike the Texas Democrats, the GOP has been working hard since day one to make inroads with communities across the state.”
She added, “By door knocking, phone banking, and opening community centers, we left no stone unturned.”
Texas Victory is the joint field operation of the RNC and the Republican Party of Texas.
They described their ground game as volunteer-led and data-driven while characterizing the Democrats’ strategy as candidate-centric.
The RNC said it has 30 staff members statewide, while its field program has engaged more than 76,000 volunteers throughout this election cycle through efforts such as Republican Leadership Initiative Trainings and others.
They say the Texas Victory team has knocked on more than 2.5 million doors and made more than 2.6 million phone calls.
The party credits that engagement for the victories it has enjoyed throughout the Rio Grande Valley, such as last year’s election of Republican Javier Villalobos as the mayor of McAllen.
Villalobos’ victory in an area where 85% of the population identifies as Hispanic is seen as a “massive political realignment towards Republicans.”
Further bolstering Republican confidence was the flip of House District 34 in which U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores won a special election after Filemon Vela resigned from the seat before the end of his term.
She is now running for a full term against U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez who was redrawn out of his current District 15 and into District 34.
Last November, state Rep. Ryan Guillen announced he was leaving the Democratic Party to run as a Republican.
Republican state Rep. John Lujan also won a special election last year, flipping a Democratic seat in the San Antonio area.
However, one of the top Democrats in the state scoffed at the idea that their party is not working hard to reach communities throughout Texas.
“We are, we’ve been doing it non-stop all year long,” said Texas Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa. “In South Texas, where I’m working, we’ve been canvassing for three months reaching voters in the state of Texas.”
“What the Republicans have been doing all along is trying to, by their actions, showing people in the state of Texas that they take the big corporations, the gun lobby, the right-wing extremists in the state — that they’re picking them — over Texas families and Texas women,” Hinojosa said.
There’s no doubt that Republicans on the national level have been working to increase their footprint in South Texas, opening a Hispanic community center in McAllen in October 2021. Meanwhile, state and local Democrats have criticized national leadership for not expending enough resources here.
That criticism became especially vocal when news broke that the House Majority PAC, the House Democrats’ largest PAC, planned to cancel scheduled ad reservations for Michelle Vallejo, the Democratic candidate for Texas’ 15th congressional district.
She’s running for the open seat here against Republican Monica De La Cruz.
The House Majority PAC has, instead, chosen to focus on the races in District 34 and District 28. But even there, Hinojosa acknowledges that they’re spending doesn’t compare to what Republicans have poured into those races.
“Although they’ve spent money in the 34th and the 28th districts — in Vicente Gonzalez’ and Cuellar’s districts — they have spent a fraction of what the Republicans have spent in those districts,” Hinojosa said.
Despite those resources, Hinojosa is unwavering in his outlook for how Democrats will perform in the Valley on Tuesday, at least publicly.
“I have a staff of 30 people statewide — a third of them are in the Rio Grande Valley right now helping in Congressional District 15,” he said. “We’ve been knocking on doors, we’ve been raising money, we’ve been helping put together events, we’ve been doing texting, we’ve been doing relational organizing, we’ve been sending out digital advertising.
“Every tool that is available to organize and to elect Democrats is being used,” he said.
