Texas GOP leaders have reportedly warned that President Donald Trump could lose the reliably red Lone Star State during his 2020 reelection bid if he doesn't dedicate more time and resources there.
James Dickey, Chairman of the Republican Party of Texas, delivered the message to the Republican National Committee (RNC), Trump's campaign, Texas GOP activists and donors, according to Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) separately spoke to new RNC co-chairman Tommy Hicks about his concerns that the president could lose the typically red state.
"The 2018 results prove that Republicans can't take Texas for granted in 2020," Dickey told Newsweek in a statement on Tuesday. "It's clear Democrats intend to invest heavily in Texas with the DCCC announcing six of their targeted races are in the Lone Star State. The Democrats have put a target on Texas and we must all be prepared because 'As goes Texas, so goes the nation' is more true now than ever before."
Dickey, Cornyn and other senior Texas Republicans have moved to address the issue by securing funding and grassroots support. GOP leaders believe Democrats could turn Texas blue in 2020 for the first time since 1976 if nothing is done to alleviate their concerns.
Chris Homan, a veteran GOP Texas operative, also expressed his concerns that Democrats, who took the House during the midterms in November, will likely be more organized, more energized and better funded in 2020. "Because of what happened organically on the Democrat side, Republicans in Texas have a large organizational gap that exists," he told the Examiner. "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."
Last November, Cornyn argued that Texas may soon lose its "reliably red" status to become a swing state during the 2020 presidential election. "Texas is no longer, I believe, a reliably red state," the senator said on Hugh Hewitt's radio show. "We are on the precipice of turning purple, and we've got a lot of work to do to keep it red, because we lost, we got blown out in the urban areas. We got beat in the suburbs, which used to be our traditional strongholds."
Cornyn's comments came after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) narrowly beat Democratic Rep. Beto O'Rourke, who raised over $80 million for his campaign, the Examiner noted. During the same race, two traditionally GOP Texas districts were flipped by the Democrats. Republicans also lost multiple state legislature swing seats.
This story has been updated to include comment from Dickey.
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