media

Fear of a blue Texas: New GOP group to spend millions registering Republicans
By David M. Drucker
Washington Examiner
June 12, 2019

Republican insiders in Texas are worried about the impact of a potential political realignment that could see affluent, college-educated voters in the suburbs permanently defect from the GOP to the Democratic Party. Additionally, they fret that thousands of Americans who move to Texas every month, attracted by the booming economy and low cost of living, will bring their liberal politics with them.

Engage Texas, modeled after a similar political nonprofit group that has operated in Nevada, is a crucial part of counteracting the effects of these shifts. Republican insiders in the state estimate that there could be as many 2 million unregistered GOP voters. Adding them to the rolls could ensure that Texas continues to perform as a red state, even as Democrats make gains there.

“For Trump, Texas is like Wisconsin was for Clinton. If the president ignores the state, the race could be close, and he could possibly lose,” said Chris Wilson, a pollster who has advised Cruz and other Texas Republicans. “But [Trump] campaign manager Brad Parscale spent years here and knows the electorate, so there is little concern Texas would be ignored. In fact, it is far more likely the Trump campaign puts Texas away quickly.”

Engage Texas also saves Team Trump from having to spend the considerable sum it will take to register voters in Texas. America First Policies and America First Action, the president’s designated outside groups, are generally taking the lead nationally on voter registration for the GOP.

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Power Up: How can Republicans bring back young voters? Good question.
By Jacqueline Alemany
The Washington Post
June 5, 2019

“NOT YOUR PARENT’S GOP: It’s not often you’ll hear us say this, but David Brooks asked it best in his column earlier this week: “The most burning question for conservatives should be: What do we have to say to young adults and about the diverse world they are living in?”

The existential question from Brooks to his fellow countrypeople was the cliffhanger of his argument that today’s generation gap — the most significant chasm in American politics today — portends a “GOP Apocalypse.”

So, we threw the question out there to some people who are paid to think about these things and prevent this from happening: What’s the GOP’s sell to the young voters of America, 56 percent who disapprove of the way Trump’s handling his job as president and 34 percent who approve?

Pollsters, campaign and party officials, and academics told Power Up that Republicans should and can attract young voters on the basis of individual liberty, in tandem with a message of religious and economic freedom. And that young voters, to a certain extent, might be open to conversations about school choice, arguments around drug pricing and merit-based immigration proposals.

• Liberty: “To the extent that younger people have thus far been liberals, as the left moves more and more to an aggressively anti-religious, anti-speech, anti-market, anti-liberty position demanding lock-step adherence in speech and action, it opens up the opportunity for a Republicans to reclaim the brand as the party of individual liberty,” Chris Wilson, a GOP pollster and the CEO of WPA Intelligence, told us.”

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