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The writing is on the wall — Texas will turn blue sooner than later. Dallas is a liberal stronghold in Texas, and in absolute numbers turns out more for Democr

The writing is on the wall — Texas will turn blue sooner than later. Dallas is a liberal stronghold in Texas, and in absolute numbers turns out more for Democrats than any other city in the state, including Austin (percentage-wise Austin wins by +5%, I believe). Unlike Austin, which is gerrymandered in the state legislature, every single state/county/city official in Dallas is a Democrat. Dallas is also a gay rights stronghold, representing the only county and city in Texas, again including Austin, with non-discrimination clauses in employment and housing for LGBTQ+ individuals. Furthermore— Texas is considering bi-partisan legislation to legalize weed. Dallas has already decriminalized it, and the State, while backwards in other regards, hasn’t indicated it will force Dallas to back down on that measure. Dallas also has stricter gun laws than the state of Texas. Texas has a long way to go, but I think if you would step in Dallas you would learn to leave your preconceived notions of it at the door. I believe an HQ2 would speed up Texas’ change.

sealthedeal 8y ago
Dallas may seem to be a liberal stronghold, but after living there for my entire life I can promise you it is anything but...
SomeCallMeTim 8y ago
I am in Dallas at least once per year. A couple months ago I was there, and around my wife's parents' house, almost every yard had a Beto sign. So I can verify that this is true, at least for some parts of Dallas.
- thebradbain 8y ago
  Anecdotal too, but everywhere in Dallas I see Beto signs — even in the affluent white neighborhoods. Hillary even won the conservative neighborhoods in 2016, and Sessions, a staunch conservative incumbent in the House of Representatives, could very well lose his seat — Hillary won his district by two points.
chrisco255 8y ago
Ft. Worth, right next door, is not though. I don't see this happening, by the way. Abbott is up by 15-20 points in the polls this year. And Texas is just different, culturally, than these other states. You can have your LGBTQ anti-discrimination and TX still remain red, BTW. They're not mutually exclusive.
- thebradbain 8y ago
  Fort Worth is the largest non-Democratic city in all of the US, yes, but if you also look at every election you can see it too is turning bluer and bluer. Also, the government race is not a good indicator. Lupe Valdez has made mistake after mistake in her campaign — I’m liberal, and even I wasn’t enthusiastic about voting for her. She’s doing so bad that she’s polling less than the percentage of registered Democrats there are in the state. For change, look at the Beto polls — he’s not favored to win, but he’ll come within 5 points. That’s huge considering Cruz previously won by +21. Furthermore, in the 2016 election Texas was only +9 Trump — that’s less than conventional swing states such as Ohio. Hillary did better in Texas than any Democrat since Reagan. Also, Texas last had a Blue governor in 1994. Texas hasn’t always been red — only for the past two decades — and it won’t stay red forever.
  - yourbandsucks 8y ago
    Nobody knows their history, they're just chasing the quick dopamine fix. Which state did the only President to pass a civil rights bill since the civil war come from? And he passed 3 of them! 3-0 vs the field.
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    > Texas last had a Blue governor in 1994. Texas hasn’t always been red — only for the past two decades — and it won’t stay red forever. California last had a Republican governor in 2011, but people will look at you funny if you try to cite that as evidence that California wasn't dyed-in-the-wool Blue at the time.
    - thebradbain 8y ago
hcg 8y ago
Unfortunately Dallas is still in Texas. Not really any different than Seattle, except Seattle has enough sway over the rest of Washington to keep it from going hard right.
- FireBeyond 8y ago
  > except Seattle has enough sway over the rest of Washington to keep it from going hard right. Which, honestly, it should be - I get the /notion/ of a lot of US electoral history in trying to allow diversity and representation, but it's people who get to vote, not acreage. Punishing people for living in a city by making their vote worth proportionally less is wrong, and ironically, by acreage/population density is a rough analog of what many were trying to escape "more votes with more land holdings". Given that the Puget Sound region has 65% of the states population...
throwaway427 8y ago
> The writing is on the wall — Texas will turn blue sooner than later. At this point the Democrats can't win for losing. If you field broadly likeable A teamers like Beto and Davis and still lose to comical villains like Cruz and Abbott, it's laughable to think the tide is really turning in our lifetime. Something big has to change, and I'm not sure what it is.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  > likeable A teamers like Beto and Davis and still lose to comical villains like Cruz and Abbott Saying stuff like this just makes you sound like a partisan hack. I'm not a "both sides are equal" guy, and I have my preferences, but you should work on trying to see other's points of view a little better than what you apparently have been.
  - throwaway427 8y ago
    Yeah I'm a hack for more sane Republican Party, not the one of fear mongering crytpo bigots, but one about sensible fiscal policy and a belief in healthy self sufficient communities and individual liberty.
- kodablah 8y ago
  It's policies, not people. You can see many Democrats winning in many areas as well as Republicans in Texas. Many in Texas are issue-oriented. That many don't understand why likable loses to villain-like I think is a larger problem than the actual choice.
phd514 8y ago
Much of what you say is true about Dallas proper, but it's a small part of the very large (4th largest MSA in the US) DFW metroplex. The large outer suburbs of DFW are still very conservative though perhaps not in all the ways you would expect. And cities in Texas can't preempt state gun laws, so Dallas's gun laws are no more restrictive than anywhere else in Texas.

sealthedeal 8y ago

Dallas may seem to be a liberal stronghold, but after living there for my entire life I can promise you it is anything but...

SomeCallMeTim 8y ago

I am in Dallas at least once per year. A couple months ago I was there, and around my wife's parents' house, almost every yard had a Beto sign. So I can verify that this is true, at least for some parts of Dallas.

thebradbain 8y ago
Anecdotal too, but everywhere in Dallas I see Beto signs — even in the affluent white neighborhoods. Hillary even won the conservative neighborhoods in 2016, and Sessions, a staunch conservative incumbent in the House of Representatives, could very well lose his seat — Hillary won his district by two points.

chrisco255 8y ago

Ft. Worth, right next door, is not though. I don't see this happening, by the way. Abbott is up by 15-20 points in the polls this year. And Texas is just different, culturally, than these other states. You can have your LGBTQ anti-discrimination and TX still remain red, BTW. They're not mutually exclusive.

thebradbain 8y ago
Fort Worth is the largest non-Democratic city in all of the US, yes, but if you also look at every election you can see it too is turning bluer and bluer. Also, the government race is not a good indicator. Lupe Valdez has made mistake after mistake in her campaign — I’m liberal, and even I wasn’t enthusiastic about voting for her. She’s doing so bad that she’s polling less than the percentage of registered Democrats there are in the state. For change, look at the Beto polls — he’s not favored to win, but he’ll come within 5 points. That’s huge considering Cruz previously won by +21. Furthermore, in the 2016 election Texas was only +9 Trump — that’s less than conventional swing states such as Ohio. Hillary did better in Texas than any Democrat since Reagan. Also, Texas last had a Blue governor in 1994. Texas hasn’t always been red — only for the past two decades — and it won’t stay red forever.
- yourbandsucks 8y ago
  Nobody knows their history, they're just chasing the quick dopamine fix. Which state did the only President to pass a civil rights bill since the civil war come from? And he passed 3 of them! 3-0 vs the field.
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > Texas last had a Blue governor in 1994. Texas hasn’t always been red — only for the past two decades — and it won’t stay red forever. California last had a Republican governor in 2011, but people will look at you funny if you try to cite that as evidence that California wasn't dyed-in-the-wool Blue at the time.
  - thebradbain 8y ago

hcg 8y ago

Unfortunately Dallas is still in Texas. Not really any different than Seattle, except Seattle has enough sway over the rest of Washington to keep it from going hard right.

FireBeyond 8y ago
> except Seattle has enough sway over the rest of Washington to keep it from going hard right. Which, honestly, it should be - I get the /notion/ of a lot of US electoral history in trying to allow diversity and representation, but it's people who get to vote, not acreage. Punishing people for living in a city by making their vote worth proportionally less is wrong, and ironically, by acreage/population density is a rough analog of what many were trying to escape "more votes with more land holdings". Given that the Puget Sound region has 65% of the states population...

throwaway427 8y ago

> The writing is on the wall — Texas will turn blue sooner than later. At this point the Democrats can't win for losing. If you field broadly likeable A teamers like Beto and Davis and still lose to comical villains like Cruz and Abbott, it's laughable to think the tide is really turning in our lifetime. Something big has to change, and I'm not sure what it is.

oh_sigh 8y ago
> likeable A teamers like Beto and Davis and still lose to comical villains like Cruz and Abbott Saying stuff like this just makes you sound like a partisan hack. I'm not a "both sides are equal" guy, and I have my preferences, but you should work on trying to see other's points of view a little better than what you apparently have been.
- throwaway427 8y ago
  Yeah I'm a hack for more sane Republican Party, not the one of fear mongering crytpo bigots, but one about sensible fiscal policy and a belief in healthy self sufficient communities and individual liberty.
kodablah 8y ago
It's policies, not people. You can see many Democrats winning in many areas as well as Republicans in Texas. Many in Texas are issue-oriented. That many don't understand why likable loses to villain-like I think is a larger problem than the actual choice.

phd514 8y ago

Much of what you say is true about Dallas proper, but it's a small part of the very large (4th largest MSA in the US) DFW metroplex. The large outer suburbs of DFW are still very conservative though perhaps not in all the ways you would expect. And cities in Texas can't preempt state gun laws, so Dallas's gun laws are no more restrictive than anywhere else in Texas.