TX Observer: “On Saturday morning, two days before the start of early primary voting, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took to the stage at a music venue in Central San Antonio to deliver a message familiar to Texas liberals. “This state is going to change the country. … That’s why I’m here, for the long game. I don’t care how many cycles it takes, it’s going to happen: Texas turning blue is in-ev-it-ab-le,” she said to uproarious applause from the few hundred in attendance.
The hope of the Great Blueing of Texas is, of course, invoked as often as it is dashed. And there’s little evidence yet suggesting Democrats will make headway statewide, in the balance of the congressional delegation, or in the Legislature this year. But the New Yorker identifies hope in two “game-changing candidates” she came to the Alamo City to support: Greg Casar, a former city council member vying for the Austin-based 35th Congressional District, and Jessica Cisneros, an immigration attorney running in the Laredo-based 28th. The two elongated districts stretch to meet in San Antonio.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, both candidates are young, Hispanic, and committed to an array of left-wing proposals, including Medicare for All and a $15 minimum wage. They share the endorsements of national progressive groups, including the Justice Democrats and the Working Families Party along with state and local unions and the Texas Organizing Project. They’ll also have to overcome more established Democrats in their primary contests. If successful, they’d be Texas’ first potential members of the “Squad”—the loose moniker for a cohort of young candidates of color elected in recent years who are fighting to push the party left.
“In this moment when Texas has grown and we’re going to have new and more congressional representation, the question is what kind of representation,” Casar said Saturday. “We need progressive fighters in Texas.””