Texas is Feeling Blue

By Kristen Barton

The last time Texas elected a democratic presidential candidate was John F. Kennedy forty years ago, which means Texas Tech University students could witness Texas electing a democratic presidential candidate for the first time in their lives on Nov. 8.

According to an NPR article, the presidential race is closer in Texas than it has been in the last 20 years.

Eric Bucy, a professor in the College of Media & Communication who studies political communication, said there are similarities between the last time Texas voted blue and this election.

“There was economic frustration and hardship,” he said.  “We could say that’s the case today. There are a lot of people the new economy isn’t really working for.”

Photo by Kristen Barton

Photo by Kristen Barton

Bucy said the potential shift in Texas politics could also be attributed to voter dissatisfaction with the Republican Party nominee, Donald Trump.

“There might be some crossover voting, republicans voting democrat, and then of course you have the independents who could vote independent or for a third party candidate, but may end up voting for Hillary,” he said. “It’s different because you don’t have a real consensus candidate on the republican side.”

Bucy has noticed there are not a lot of Texans rallying behind Trump, and a democratic victory would be less likely if the candidate was someone such as Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. This is causing some people to not vote because they do not like either candidate, which is unusual in a presidential race.

“If that’s the case, it’s all a game about turnout,” Bucy said. “If it’s fairly evenly matched in the key cities, in the key districts where there’s a lot of Democrats, if [Hillary Clinton] can really rally the vote, that gives her a shot.”

Bucy said since the possibility of Texas being a blue state this election is getting national attention, it means Clinton’s organization is working to get votes in Texas.

Lubbock County has had an increase in voter registration, Roxzine Stinson, chief deputy of elections for the Lubbock County Elections Office, said. There are currently 166,790 registered voters in Lubbock County, according to the elections office website.

“Tech and some of the other colleges have done an amazing job getting the kids to register this time around,” Stinson said. “It’s been nice. I think that’s why some of the numbers are up.”

There is not a way to know how many of those voters are democrats and will cast a vote for Clinton based on those numbers, Stinson said.

“In the state of Texas you don’t register by party,” she said. “You do declare a party when you vote in the primary, but the next year you can change that.”

Lubbock's Office of Elections and Voter Registration.

Lubbock’s Office of Elections and Voter Registration.

Lubbock County has seen record-breaking early voting numbers in this election, according to the elections office website and their daily numbers. It is common to see an increase in voting during a presidential race.

With these high registration numbers, the Lubbock County Democratic Party is trying to ensure a Clinton victory in this election.

Stuart Williams, vice chair of the Lubbock County Democratic Party, said the future of the party is in the Hispanic population.

“A lot of those counties have a huge Hispanic population, especially those counties west of Lubbock” he said. “So what we have to do is get out to those counties talking to Hispanic people, get them involved.”

This also means having candidates who speak to the Hispanic community and talk about issues they care about.

Polls show when young people vote they tend to vote democrat, Williams said. So since Lubbock is a college town, the college population is a coalition the party needs to go over the top this election.

“I guess statistically young voters tend to vote democrat, but they really only rally around people they consider exciting or consider fundamentally authentic or honest or transparent,” Bucy said. “I think it’s easier to discourage the younger vote when you’ve got this complicated political history where you’ve made a lot of compromises both in terms of policy or in terms of personal ethics.”

Early voting continues in Texas until Nov. 4 and Election Day is Nov. 8. Students can vote early on campus at the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center and at the University Library on Election Day. Other polling locations can be found at Lubbock County Elections website.

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