While @staceyabrams credits me & my wife w/ investing in GA "before it was logical," the signs were there if you knew what to look for. The question now is who's next?

In my latest for @thenation, I point to 4 factors for turning a red state blue. THREAD

1.) Favorable demographic trends

Texas has the second-largest pool of nonvoting people of color (after already blue CA), and the numbers of potential voters of color far exceeds the margin of difference in statewide elections. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
Joe Biden lost Texas by ~600k votes, and despite the record turnout on both sides, 4.5 million eligible people of color still did not vote according to exit polls and census data.
2.) "Level 5 Leaders" also known as:

Leaders who combine personal humility with indomitable will and are "infected with an incurable need to produce results" for the cause. https://t.co/8RPWCdy4VU
@MtremilloT and Brianna Brown are Abrams-like Level 5 leaders who have built a relentless and effective civic engagement machine that has helped tip electoral outcomes in cities and counties across the state. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
Just as @staceyabrams' success is rooted in Georgia’s civil rights history, it is not inconsequential that Mexican American and African American daughters of Texas are leading an organization that is entrenched in and driving change. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
3. Well-run, community-based civic engagement operations

@OrganizeTexas has done comparable work to @NewGAProject for some time, w/ a membership of over 250K people.

In 2020, they turned out over 300K infrequent voters of color who didn't vote in 2016. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
Trump's win in TX obscures the progress b/c he squeezed votes out of a group going through what @JoyAnnReid calls a demographic panic.

As GA runoffs showed, w/o Trump & his cult-like following, R turnout is less visceral, making a TX gubernatorial win in 2022 a possibility.
4.) $$$

In 2012, @staceyabrams's PAC GeorgiaNext raised $54K. In 2020, her org @fairfightaction raised $90 MILLION.

There are talented & effective POC orgs across country and with proper funding, they can change the world as we just saw in Georgia. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
TX is bigger than GA w/ even greater potential than what we're witnessing in GA.

But w/ a budget of $5 million, orgs like @OrganizeTexas are woefully underfunded.

Donors should see to it that they add a "0" to that number. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
The Democratic ecosystem of party committees, SuperPACs, and progressive groups spend close to $1 billion every cycle.

At least $200 million of that should be flowing into Texas. https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t
"Georgia has shown what's possible.

Texas is poised to build on that model and continue the revolutionary work of transforming America into the multiracial democracy that it aspires to be." https://t.co/ynM1NNQZ8t

More from Society

Imagine if Christians actually had to live according to their Bibles.


Imagine if Christians actually sacrificed themselves for the good of those they considered their enemies, with no thought of any recompense or reward, but only to honor the essential humanity of all people.

Imagine if Christians sold all their possessions and gave it to the poor.

Imagine if they relentlessly stood up for the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.

Imagine if they worshipped a God whose response to political power was to reject it.

Or cancelled all debt owed them?

Imagine if the primary orientation of Christians was what others needed, not what they deserved.

Imagine Christians with no interest in protecting what they had.

Imagine Christians who made room for other beliefs, and honored the truths they found there.

Imagine Christians who saved their forgiveness and mercy for others, rather than saving it for themselves.

Whose empathy went first to the abused, not the abuser.

Who didn't see tax as theft; who didn't need to control distribution of public good to the deserving.

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