As I wrote last week, I went down to my local county Democratic Party meeting this Saturday. The organizers were impressed at the turnout—they had over 60 people contact them about volunteering in the three days after the election. Besides meeting some of the local people involved in Pantsuit Nation (who corrected my mistaken assumption that it was women only), I learned a couple of important things.
Thing 1
First off, while I live in a red county (Clinton got less than 45% of the vote), we’ve generally been trending in the right direction since 2000. . . . and we’re trailing the state. As it is, in the five largest counties (Dallas, Harris, etc.), every Democrat up for countywide office won.
In other words, those who think that Texas could turn blue aren’t wrong—Texas could go blue in 2020 if we can mobilize and motivate voters over the next four years.
Thing 2
But that’s not the real reason I wrote this diary. It was to point out something I’d never known before this weekend:
In the state of Texas, my county Democratic Party does not provide support to or receive support from the Texas Democratic Party or the Democratic National Committee. Likewise, my county Democratic Party generally does not provide support to or receive support from candidates (other than organizational/manpower aid).
What does this mean for you?
Well, the county Democratic parties are where you start building your bench. And it’s hard to do that if they don’t even have enough money to pay the rent, or enough volunteers to keep the doors open. If you can spare a few dollars—or a few hours—a month, your local Democratic party could use the help!