WASHINGTON (AP) — Monday's announcement that yet another Republican congressman is retiring highlights the GOP's growing struggle to win the House majority next year and the shifting political leanings of Texas, the nation's second-largest state.
Democrats' burgeoning prospects in Texas, which has a deep-red pedigree, are widely attributed to two factors. One is the state's growing populations of Hispanics and of moderate voters in communities ringing cities like Dallas, Houston and Austin, the other is the polarizing rhetoric of President Donald Trump.
"Trump has really turned out to be an accelerant for energizing young voters and voters of color," said Democratic pollster Zac McCrary, whose clients include MJ Hegar, a Democratic contender for challenging GOP Sen. John Cornyn next year. "And again at the same time, Trump has so deeply alienated suburban white voters in numbers that are mind-boggling."
Yet the arc of the state's demographic and political changes is such that Trump remains the favorite to win the state's coveted 38 electoral votes next year. And Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran who's raised a daunting cache of campaign money and has plans to raise more, may prove difficult for Democrats to topple.
Rep. Kenny Marchant, an eight-term lawmaker from the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, said Monday he won't seek re-election in 2020. That made him the 11th GOP representative to so far say he'll step aside — compared to just three Democrats — and the seventh in just two weeks.4.html