FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Democrats have been hoping to flip Texas for years – first in 2014, then 2016, 2018 and now 2020, – but once again this election proved to be a disappointment for the state’s minority party.
Expectations were high, but there was no blue wave in the Lone Star State.
“One of the net takeaways from this election is that in Texas, not a lot changed,” said Kimi King, a political science professor at the University of North Texas.
President Donald Trump beat Democrat Joe Biden in every county in North Texas, except for Dallas County.
It’s still a close race in Tarrant County, where the president has a 2,000 vote lead and defective mail-in ballots are still being counted.
“I think it’s definitely a function of the urban areas that are flowing into the suburban areas, and it’s making Texas potentially purple, look a little purplish,” King said.
King says that helps explain why the margins in the presidential race were narrower than they’ve been in decades.
The president won the state by just six percentage points.
“It really shows that in terms of the national ticket, with President Trump, Republicans are becoming increasingly disenchanted,” said King.
Down ballot, Republicans continued to dominate, even though Democrats poured tens of millions of dollars into campaigns here.
“Money can’t buy you love in Texas,” she said. “It doesn’t even buy you a Republican seat.”
King says Democrats had all the resources, but no real ground game. Republicans campaigned door-to-door, while Democrats stuck to mostly virtual events.
Even in the middle of a pandemic, King says they should have gotten creative.
“How different it might have been if instead of a media ad blitz, they did some kind of safe walk or wave in those neighborhoods they thought they may have been able to flip in some of those key races,” said King.
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