Bloomberg reports that grassroots organizers have moved into Texas with significant resources and the intention of turning Texas into a battleground state by 2020. I have looked at the numbers in the past and my recollection is that I determined Texas would be purple by 2024 and blue by 2028. So, this project isn’t all that ambitious. It merely seeks to move things up one presidential cycle. I think that is eminently doable. I also think that a particularly wobbly cycle for the Republicans could move things up an additional four years. The projections above are based on whites, blacks, and Latinos voting in stable proportions. If, however, whites and/or Latinos turn against the GOP in greater numbers, the process will accelerate. With the right kind of commitment, and a particularly bad matchup for the Republicans, it is not inconceivable to me that the GOP will find itself unable to take Texas for granted in 2016. It would take a perfect storm, including massive Latino voter registration and a significant erosion of the GOP’s share of the white vote, but it isn’t unthinkable. It’s worth trying, too, because the sooner the GOP comes to reckoning on the status of conservatism in this country, the sooner we start moving in the right direction as a country.

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