WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Top Republicans in Texas are sounding the alarm about 2020, warning President Trump could lose the usually reliably red state unless he devotes resources and attention to it typically reserved for electoral battlegrounds.
Texas GOP Chairman James Dickey has delivered this message to the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, GOP donors, and activists in the state. Nationally, Republican operatives and donors have historically taken Texas for granted and directed their financial and organizational muscle to more competitive regions. Separately, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, up for re-election next year, has spoken with new RNC co-chairman Tommy Hicks, a Lone Star State native, about concerns that Trump could lose the state.
Along with other senior Texas Republicans, Dickey and Cornyn are moving to secure the money and grassroots support needed to withstand a feared Democratic surge statewide in 2020. If left unchecked, they are convinced Texas could turn blue in a presidential contest for the first time since 1976.
“We are talking to everyone,” Dickey told the Washington Examiner this month while attending the RNC’s annual winter business meeting in New Mexico. “The challenges we face in Texas are very real.”
Texas controls 38 votes in the Electoral College, a massive haul without which Trump would be unlikely to reach 270 and win a second term. Dependably Republican for decades, Texas nearly elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in the midterm elections. Last year, two traditionally GOP Texas seats in the House of Representatives flipped to the Democrats, and the GOP lost several swing seats in the state legislature.
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Source: Texas Republicans fear Trump could lose the state in 2020