At this year’s Texas Democratic Party convention, sounds of the Corpus Christi coastline lulled Lone Star liberals into the recurring dream of a blue wave crashing over the state. After 30 years of Republican rule, Democrats once again insisted that 2026 would be their best shot at flipping Texas in decades. Emboldened by a viral U.S. Senate candidate in James Talarico and the toxic failures of President Donald Trump, the conditions almost mirror 2018 when the last blue wave turned the tides of several down-ballot races but, at the top, ultimately turned out to be little more than a message written in the sand.
Over the course of the three-day convention, a long line of speakers attacked Republicans on the high price of groceries and healthcare as well as the shuttering of public schools across the state. In the drought-stricken city of oil refineries and the original Whataburger, the most prominent climate issues mentioned weren’t tied to fossil fuels and the oil and gas industry but water-wasting data centers and cattle-killing screwworms. They adopted a new party platform focused on populist policies protecting workers’ rights, expanding public transportation, and making healthcare more affordable.
