Plenty of folks in Texas and outside — like some in the insular Beltway pundit class — don’t believe Texas is a swing state. It is. And a new round of on-the-record comments by Republicans continue to make the case.
“Texas is a battleground,” Senator Ted Cruz said on the Ben Shapiro Show earlier this month.
On FOX News, Kayleigh McEnany, national press secretary for the Trump re-election campaign, admitted Thursday that Texas was a swing state.
MACCALLUM [ANCHOR]: So, Kayleigh, what does your internal polling show in Texas? What is the internal poll show in Texas?
MCENANY: It shows in all 17 key states, Texas among them, President Trump beats a define Democrat — when you say the issues that President Trump stands for, a Democrat head to head, which is the closest proximity you can get to something accurate, not just a head to head, he is winning in all 17 swing states and we believe that to be true. (Emphasis added.)
And in recent days, the Texas Republican Party has been more coy, but not exactly projecting confidence. When asked by The Texas Signal on June 11 if Texas was a swing state, the party’s exhaustive response, in full, by chairman James Dickey:
“We always take the need to earn the vote of every Texan seriously, and we need every opportunity-loving Texan to join us to protect the future of our great state. The Democrat challenge in 2018 came from a candidate [Beto O’Rourke] who raised tens of millions of dollars from outside of Texas and stood on everything in sight except any principles with which Texans agree.
“Democrats ignore the rule of law, oppose freedom and opportunity, and obstruct progress and leadership. Texans have consistently rebuffed these failed policies that do not fit with our exceptionalism. Republicans will continue to lead Texas by upholding the rule of law, protecting innocent life, and ensuring our state’s economy continues to boom so that each and every Texan can have a brighter future.”
In January the conservative Washington Examiner reported Dickey said, “The challenges we face in Texas are very real.”
The latest Quinnipiac University poll of Texas voters found similar results to at least three other polls on the 2020 race for the White House. The matchup between Trump and any one of the top seven Democratic presidential contenders is too close to call.
The results, says Quinnipiac, “could spell trouble for President Trump.”
As the Signal has previously reported, Sen. John Cornyn and his campaign co-chair have hinted or said outright Texas is competitive.
Moral of the story: Skeptics beware. Texas is on the move.
