Women Can Stop Republican Men from Determining Our Federal Policies and Priorities

By Faith Chatham - August 6, 2015
(Originally published on Daily Kos as: "Mid Year Status: Texas Congressional 2016 Spotlight")Faith Chatham is the founder and CFO/Treasurer of the Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC, a multi-candidate Federal Political Action Committee which focuses on equipping Progressive challengers running on the Ballot in Texas against G.O.P. /Tea Party Congressional Incumbents.

REPUBLICAN MEN MAKE THE DECISIONS FOR TEXAS WOMEN IN WASHINGTON.  

Despite over 51% of the Texas Population being female, less than 8% of Texas' federal delegation to Congress is female. Texas Women can change that, but inertia and decades of crumbling, insufficient investments in U.S. House District campaign infrastructure by Democrats, adds fuel to the incumbent advantage enjoyed by most of Texas' G.O.P. U.S. House and Senate members.

Texas' partisan slide away from Democratic Federal Incumbents began before Republicans controlled the State Legislature and got control of the redistricting process. To be successful in retaking a significant number of Congressional seats in the Texas delegation, it is important that Democrats stop using gerrymandering as an excuse for sitting on our hands, doing too little or nothing, to equip  Democratic challenger to build the political infrastructure to successfully compete against Republican incumbents. During the first half of 2015 Democrats invested less than 1/4 of what Republicans invested  in Congressional campaigns in Texas districts.

Partisan rankings like Cooks cannot adequately gauge true partisanship when there is not enough investment for both party's to convey their position and message to the voters in the district. Few Texas Congressional Districts with G.O.P. incumbents have seen Democratic congressional campaigns with funding levels adequate to finance staff, vigorous walk and phone teams and advertising. For several election cycles, citizens with progressive viewpoints in most U.S. Congressional Districts in Texas have not learned enough about the challengers to understand that they had a serious alternative to the incumbent.

Gerrymandering is frequently cited as an excuse for not supporting Democratic Congressional challengers in Texas. There are more factors at play than just the maps which favor G.O.P./Tea Party incumbents in Texas.

There are reasons to be guardedly optimistic for 2016. However, for success, there are some changes which Democrats must make. We must move beyond the status quo Democratic response which looks much too similar to this:

All of the Democratic Incumbents from Texas in the U.S. Congress, other than Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, were initially elected to Congress in Presidential Election Years. Democrats are more likely to turn out to vote in Presidential Election years than in Mid-Term years in Texas. Texas Democratic State Executive Director, Crystal Perkins, stated in Fort Worth earlier this year that the State Party was "regrouping for 2018."  Waiting until a mid-term election year to invest in Democratic campaign infrastructure in Texas is a repetition of the State Democratic Party's multi-election year failed strategy. Instead of building and investing to go with the wind (higher presidential election year Democratic turn-out) they propose waiting until a mid-term election year in a state where Democrats have not turned out a Democratic majority statewide since the election of Ann Richards as Governor!

As I see it, the problem is not that the DCCC and House Majority PAC are wrong to focus their resources toward winning the bluest districts in the nation. The problem is that too many Texans refuse to donate to Texas Congressional Candidates.  We should continue supporting the DCCC to help Democrats compete in the bluest districts in the nation. Then we need to do our part here at home. It isn't that the DCCC is not doing their part. They allocate their resources to the strongest races in the nation. The problem is that we have been sitting on our hands for much too long, refusing to do anything in Texas U.S. Congressional Districts unless the DCCC is also targeting these districts.  The problem is not what the DCCC is doing. It is that we need to do more. We need to assess our situation in Texas and create winning strategies to retake a majority in our State's Federal Delegation. This is the job of Texans and we welcome help from friends outside our state. However, it is ridiculous to expect others to come in and "do it for us" when we refuse to step up and do what we can ourselves!

CITIZENS SHOULD'T WAIT FOR DEEP POCKET DONORS TO LEAD THE WAY!

Instead of backroom deals relying on financial control by a few deep-pocketed donors, we have the quintessential opportunity where many of us doing a little can lead those who are financially able to do a lot beyond the same old failed non-strategies which have promoted Tea Party wins! Texans now have the vehicle to raise money and channel it to progressive (Democratic) Federal Races. The Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC was founded earlier this year to focus on doing in Texas what the DCCC does in the nation. We should look at the strongest Democrats running in U.S. House Districts in Texas and donate a few dollars early and volunteer a few hours when we can. We have districts where the electorate is much more progressive than the incumbents. We have districts which have changed demographically. We have districts which, even though they aren't ranked as blue as many others in the nation, are still purple enough to be worth investing in political infrastructure to enable Progressive candidates to campaign vigorously against G.O.P./Tea Party incumbents.

The lack of resources of challengers in Texas' purple districts gives s too many G.O.P. incumbents a free ride. A free ride allows incumbents to transfer funds to candidates in more competitive districts, lending fuel to the struggle of good progressives in other districts.

THE TEXAS  20 MEDIA MARKET DIVIDE

We must stop viewing Texas from only the vantage point of only being concerned with  the Congressional District where we live; instead we need to look at all the Districts in Texas. Building bridges across Congressional District Lines to support good progressive candidates running against Red Incumbents is how we can change the Congressional math in Texas. To do this, we must bridge the  20 media markets divide  and communicate throughout the state about Democratic challengers and their campaigns.  All of our candidates needs to become household words of Democratic activists throughout the state.

It is in our own best interest to become informed and active. Just as the vote of every member of the U.S. House and Senate has as much impact on citizens throughout the United States as the vote of each person's U.S. Representative, the activism of citizens throughout the state (and nation) can also impact the outcomes of Federal elections.
I must vote in the U.S. Congressional District where I live. However, I can volunteer, donate, do research, encourage others to donate, write, blog and communicate about races in Districts where I do not reside. When candidates have slim war chests, volunteers and cross district donors, can make the significant difference which can mean the difference between a win or loss on election day.

Many people live in remote areas where there are no campaigns on the ground needing volunteers. Every Congressional race can use volunteers working virtually on-line or by telephone from their homes.  Instead of spending time driving to go phone bank, those with an hour or two a week can volunteer in virtual phone banks from their own homes if they have cell phone minutes or home telephone all distance callings. Every campaign can use data entry folks and that can be done on a home computer via internet.  The Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC is establishing a Texas Congressional Volunteer registry/referral service to match volunteers with needy campaigns.
Some may volunteer in their own precincts or counties and also volunteer an hour or two virtually for candidates in other parts of the state.  We must stop thinking of "my Congressional District" and come together to view all of Texas' Congressional Districts as key to our survival. Continuing to lay down and let the Koch Brothers decided who will and who won't set our national policy must stop.

There are ample resources in Texas for Progressives to build effective infrastructure to win, but progressives must pull together, be realistic in assessing the obstacles,  work together to find solutions, communicate effectively throughout the state about all of the Federal Campaigns in all of Texas' Districts,  and maximize the use of social media networks. Laying down and wringing the hands and moaning and using gerrymandering and incumbency as excuses for doing nothing must stop. Incumbents build an organization and improve it for the next election. Democrats must build an organization and improve it even if the outcome of the election is not a full blown win. We must take what we had and improve it for the next election. Abandoning the struggle the day after the General Election and leaving the next challenger to have to start from scratch without knowledge or benefit from the investment in the prior campaign keeps challengers perpetually reinventing the wheel while the incumbents organizations become more refined and effective.

Even if the strategy of fighting to save the Democratic seat in US-TX 23 had been successful, it would not have changed the math enough In the Texas Delegation in 2014 there were 12 Democrats and 24 Republicans in the House. After the loss of UX-TX 23 in the last General Election, the math is now 11 Democrats to 25 Republicans in the U.S. House and two Republicans (including good old Teddie Cruz) in the U.S. Senate.  The eleven remaining Democrats in the U.S. House are in relatively safe districts. Challengers in the remaining 24 House Districts currently occupied by Republican/Tea Party incumbents, were starved for funds, starved for volunteers, starved for resources for research, polling, GOTV.

In 2014 Democratic Nominees in six U.S. House Districts had no income and made no expenditures. Despite having a Democrat's name on the ballot, the Republican incumbents in those districts were virtually unchallenged. No investments were made by Democrats in those districts. Of the Democratic non-incumbents challenging Republican incumbents, only six out of 22 had contributions of at least $60,000.00 and spend at least $60,000.00.  The only non-incumbent Democrat who spent at least $1Mil was Tom Sanchez and he was challenging an Incumbent Democrat in the Primary, not a Republican in the General Election. When income and disbursement from his Primary race in U.S.-TX 33 are deducted, the total receipts for all of the non incumbent Congressional Democrats running on the ballot in Texas in 2014 comes to slightly over half a million dollars. That makes an average of $25,736 per Democratic Non Incumbent Nominee for the combined Primary and General Election! Texas Democrats have the resources to fund these campaign, but the more vigorous Democratic Congressional Challenger races in 2014 received (and spent) on average less than $13K during each of the two campaign cycles (Primary and General)  in 2014!

The current strategy of donors refusing to support candidates unless they are in DCCC targeted Red to Blue Districts is a roadmap to failure. There is a better way to do it. And it does not depend upon the DCCC or any national PAC changing their strategy. It is not dependent upon one of more "sugar daddy" deep pocketed billionaire donors "seeing the light" and becoming altruistic in funding challenger campaigns. It is dependent upon "ordinary"  low and middle income Texans giving what we can and doing what we are able to help progressive challengers. It is dependent upon many people doing something instead of almost everyone doing nothing! I think some of the deeper pocketed progressive donors will get on-board when they see support flowing into these challenger campaigns.

MODEST CONTRIBUTIONS BY TEXAS’ PRESIDENTIAL VOTERS WOULD CHANGE THE STATUS QUO IN TEXAS’ FEDERAL HOUSE DISTRICTS

If each Texan who voted Democratic for President in 2008 gave at least $6 to U.S. Congressional challengers competing in G.O.P occupied Texas-U.S. House Districts, it would infuse over $20-Million into challenger campaigns.  Twenty million split between Democratic Congressional candidates running in the 25 G.O.P. occupied districts in  Texas would build a lot more political infrastructure than the meager half a $Million contributed in '14  split 25 ways!  

Six dollars from every  Democratic Presidential voter in Texas in 2008 would come to apx. $846,871 per district and that would force G.O.P. incumbents to spend their war chests, reducing the  number of incumbents who are able to raise money and transfer it to state races or Federal campaigns in other districts. There would be advertising budgets large enough to communicate the candidate’s messages to the voters and sufficient to run a campaign organization. Seeing Democrats step-up and donate to other Democratic challengers would help attract future candidates to fill out he Democratic Primary tickets and give us a better chance of drawing more voters to the polls. As it stands, few counties have contested Democratic Primaries. Many reason "Why bother when we already know the outcome!"

If each Texan who voted Democratic for President in 2014 gave $5 during the Primary and $5 during the General Election, that would infuse over $33Mil into Texas U.S. Congressional challenger races. That would give an average budge of $1.34 Mil per challenger in the 25 districts occupied by Republicans. If Democrats in Texas really want to win U.S. Congressional seats, the resources are here without depending on deep pocketed donors! If only half of those who voted Democratic in 2008 gave $6, it would still increase the money available to Democratic challengers  11 times what was donated and spent by Democratic Congressional Challengers in Texas in 2014!

Here is the Federal Landscape in Texas. 

There are several 2016 U.S. Congressional Campaigns on the ground in Texas. 2014 Democratic Nominees David E. Cozad (US-TX 6), Dr. Shirley McKellar, PhD. (US-TX1), Tawana Cadien (US-TX 10), Michael Cole (US-TX 14), James Cargas (US-TX7) and Pete Gallego (US-TX 32) all have campaign organizations working. They can each use some help! There is speculation that Solomon Ortiz, Jr. may run against Blake Farenthold. He is "considering it" and many are hopeful that he'll take up the challenge.

We still have about 4 months before filing deadline. It will be interesting to see who else declares. Knowing that there are Texans out there who are organizing to help could encourage quality candidates to join. We urge you to join your voice with that of other Texans through membership and activism in the Texas Federal Blue Seed PAC. To join visit https://secure.actblue.com/..     or go to http:/www.txfedblueseed.com
.