Texas GOP races to shore up the suburbs for 2020

Now the party is scrambling to avoid a repeat in 2020.Facing a rapidly changing voter base, anti-Trump fervor and a more motivated Democratic Party, the state GOP is moving earlier than ever to prepare after watching two House members lose in 2018 and another half-dozen win by fewer than 5 points.Story Continued BelowThe party has set new fundraising goals and placed field staffers in Dallas and Fort Worth nine months earlier than in the last election cycle to facilitate more engagement with voters, with plans to expand the early hiring to other major metro areas to stanch bleeding Republican support in the suburbs."We are taking seriously our need to earn every vote in Texas," said James Dickey, chairman of the Texas Republican Party. You can unsubscribe at any time.Field teams will be responsible for recruiting volunteers to knock on doors, attending events to talk to voters and testing out new texting tools to boost voter registration and turn out among potential GOP voters."From my personal experience, there is nothing more effective than talking to folks," said Sam Pohl, spokesperson at the Republican Party of Texas.The state party also plans to raise $5 million this year — double the amount it raised in 2018 — with about half of that money earmarked for television advertising.Next November will be the real test of whether midterm results were a flash in the pan — a combination of O’Rourke’s popular Senate candidacy and a traditional midterm setback for the president’s party, or signs of bigger headwinds for Texas Republicans. An opponent for Cornyn at the statewide level has also yet to emerge.But the fact that Democrats view those districts as potential targets — and Republicans acknowledge the need to defend them — speaks to a political landscape in deep flux after the last two elections.“The question we are going to find out in 2020 is how systemic and how deep issues are” for the Texas GOP, said Patterson.