Republicans in Texas are worried about 2020

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“Because of what happened organically on the Democrat side, Republicans in Texas have a large organizational gap that exists. In 2018, we simply did not have the kind of people and activists at the scale the Democrats enjoyed. This is a significant advantage the Democrats have going into this cycle,” Homan said.

Some Republicans argue that the Democrats’ success in Texas in 2018 might have been a fluke.

First term presidents typically lose seats in Congress in midterm elections. And, in Texas, Democratic Senate nominee Beto O’Rourke boosted Democrats down ticket with a campaign that, while falling just short, spent more than $70 million on the ground. That’s a gargantuan sum unlikely to be equaled in a presidential election cycle with plenty of other states on the map where money goes farther than it does in Texas, where campaigning and running ads is expensive.

This is of little comfort to many Republicans.

The Trump campaign is monitoring developments in the state, prepared to raise the threat level. O’Rourke is a possible presidential candidate, and another Texan, former Cabinet official Julian Castro, announced his bid for the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago. If either were on the ticket, even as the running mate, Texas would automatically be in play, fret Republican operatives focused on 2020.

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