Democrats regroup after Republicans score easy win in Texas House special election
tate and national Democrats are regrouping after a tough loss Tuesday in a special election runoff for a Texas House seat that they had targeted in their drive to flip the chamber in November.
The result — a 16-point win by Republican Gary Gates over Democrat Eliz Markowitz — left Democrats insisting the seat will be more competitive in November and citing unique factors like Gates' self-funding capacity. But they also acknowledged they could have some lessons to learn after a race that drew a flood of out-of-district attention — and the higher stakes that came with it.
On one hand, Austin-based Democratic consultant Glenn Smith said, House District 28 is a "really hard district." It ranks 16th out of 22 on the list of seats that Democrats believe they can flip in the fall.
"On the other hand, sometimes we get out in front of ourselves by raising expectations and frankly talking too much about what we're doing and what we're gonna do instead of just doing it," said Smith, who was not involved in the race. "I completely agree with taking the fight to the other side whenever we can ... but they got in front of themselves about how wonderful this was gonna be."
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/01/30/democrats-regroup-after-republicans-win-easily-texas-house-district-28/
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