Time for our look at the week in Texas politics with editor-in-chief of the Texas Tribune, Emily Ramshaw.
Over the DNC’s four days, plenty of famous Texans took the stage: Rep. Joaquín Castro, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, actress Eva Longoria and Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez. Ramshaw says this year’s unusual because normally conventions are dry.
“There was a huge entertainment value basically at both of these conventions,” she says. “You saw a lot of conservative pundits saying on social media last night saying, Boy, the Democratic convention really stole our thunder.”
On Hillary Clinton’s speech last night:
“It was a huge landmark. Any woman watching a speech like that couldn’t help but feel a couple of tingles thinking about that potential. She was far more positive than we saw Trump. Now, obviously, Clinton is looking back on eight years of Obama and has a lot of things that she can herald, whereas Trump is saying the country has gone the wrong direction in the past eight years.”
On whether the convention will make a difference in Texas:
“No… we know the way that Texas is going to go. This is a staunchly conservative state… even though there’s not much love for Donald Trump, even in sort of thick conservative circles, this is still a state that’s going to vote conservative. That said, I think in the rest of the country, in places like the Rust Belt where Clinton’s going to spending a lot of her time fresh out of the convention, this could have played.”
On Joaquin Castro’s comment that Texas Democrats don’t vote:
“Democrats have been saying for years that there is this sleeping giant in Texas. And that if Hispanic voters turned out in any kind of large numbers, which they don’t right now, Texas would have the potential to go blue eventually… It’s really hard to know because those voters don’t vote. The longer they don’t vote, the more time it gives Republicans to find ways to make inroads. Hispanics aren’t a given for the Democratic party. There are a lot of things, particularly around social issues, where Hispanics may lean right.”
Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.
Post by Hannah McBride.
