From The Texas Newsroom:
Several Texas Democrats enjoyed a short reprieve from their deep-red state this week and descended on Chicago, surrounding themselves in the friendlier confines of the Democratic National Convention.
The four-day event, which culminated with the official nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for president and vice president, pinballed between themes that included a return to civility and optimism, protecting abortion access and a message to disenchanted Republicans that it’s acceptable — if not patriotic — to change lanes and back the Democratic ticket for the sake of the country’s future.
Dallas Congressman Colin Allred, who for weeks has kept some distance between himself and the vice president as he campaigns against Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, took to the stage Thursday night to endorse the Democratic presidential nominee and attack his opponent.
“We will protect and restore reproductive freedom, we will secure the border, we’ll protect Medicare and social security,” he said. “We’ll turn the page and write a new chapter for this country, elect Kamala Harris to be the next president of this country, and beat Ted Cruz.”
Allred is running in a tight race with Cruz, according to a recent University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs poll. That same poll showed Harris narrowing Trump’s lead in the state to 5 percentage points.
His comments were later followed by another Texan, Kim Rubio of Uvalde, whose daughter Lexi was among the 19 students and two teachers gunned down during a 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. Speaking alongside others impacted by gun violence, Rubio told the story of the morning her daughter was killed.
“She received the good citizen award and we posed for photos. She wears a St. Mary’s sweatshirt and a smile that lights up the room,” Rubio said. “Thirty minutes later a gunman murdered her. Uvalde is national news. I reach out for the daughter I will never hold again.”
Democrats maximized the convention’s wall-to-wall media coverage to warn the country of a bleak and uncertain future should former President Donald Trump once again ascend to commander in chief, along with defending the current administration’s efforts to secure the border.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Dallas, kicked off the week and seized on her primetime speaking slot during the convention’s first evening to assail Trump over his recent legal woes and compare his resume to Harris’s.
“She became a career prosecutor while he became a career criminal with 34 felonies, two impeachments and one porn star to prove it,” she said, referring to the former president’s New York state conviction on multiple state charges related to falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to former adult film actress Stormy Daniels.
“Her entire career – as an elected district attorney, attorney general and senator – she’s always worked for one client: the people,” Crockett said of Harris. “Meanwhile, he’s a 78-year-old lifelong predator, fraudster and cheat known for inciting violent mobs.”
Kim Rubio of Uvalde speaks during the Democratic National Convention Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024, in Chicago. Rubio’s daughter Lexi was killed in the May 24, 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary.
Brynn Anderson / AP
Texans focus on abortion access from the convention stage
Crockett also spoke early on about what became a common theme throughout the week: women’s health and reproductive rights. She chastised Trump and the Republican party for supporting the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned the landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade.
“As women are dying, he is bragging about overturning Roe,” she said. Crockett then chastised Texas’ own GOP faction for proposing capital punishment in its party platform for women who have abortions.
“They want to instate the death penalty, that is a problem,” she said.
That same evening, Amanda Zurawski — a Texas woman who sued the state over its near-total abortion ban — joined other women on stage to share her harrowing, personal account of navigating the healthcare system in a post-Roe country.
Zurawski, who was accompanied on stage with her husband Josh, was 18 weeks pregnant when she experienced severe complications with her pregnancy and was told her fetus was not viable. Even though the situation proved harmful to Zurawski’s own health, her doctors refused to perform an abortion.
Amanda Zurawski, pictured here introducing President Joe Biden at a speaking event earlier this year, shared her personal account of navigating the healthcare system in a post-Roe country at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday.
Alex Brandon / AP
“I was lucky, I lived. So, I’ll continue sharing our story standing with women and families across the country. Today, because of Donald Trump, more than on in three women of reproductive age in America lives under an abortion ban,” Zurawski said. “A second Trump term would rip away even more of our rights. We cannot let that happen. We need to vote as if lives depend on it, because they do. “
Kate Cox, who whose fetus was diagnosed as having a low chance of survival, joined lawmakers and other Democrats during a ceremonial roll callTuesday where each state officially pledged its delegates to the Harris-Walz ticket. Cox announced she was again expecting after fleeing Texas to obtain what she said was a life-saving medical procedure.
“When I got pregnant, doctors told us our baby would never survive, and if I didn’t get an abortion, it would put a future pregnancy at risk,” Cox said. “But Trump didn’t care. And because of his abortion bans, I had to flee my home.”
Against a backdrop of applause, she then added: “Today, because I found a way to access abortion care, I am pregnant again. And my baby is due in January, just in time to see Kamala Harris sworn in as president of the United States.”
Democrats are keeping abortion in the spotlight because they see it as an issue that can swing voters to their side, especially women who support reproductive freedom, University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said.
“Women are more progressive than men, and women vote. So, Democrats recognize that they can use that abortion issue as a wedge that helps them to win, especially in suburban areas,” Rottinghaus said.
The issue can also resonate with younger men, specifically those who disagree with the gutting of Roe v. Wade.
“There’s been a history in the last few years since Roe v. Wade was overturned that gives credible evidence that this is a major political motivator for people,” he said. “Not just for women, but also for college-educated men who are drifting more to the Democratic Party [and] younger voters who want to see a different future and see their rights protected.”
Dems push back on Republican border rhetoric
Immigration was also top of mind for Texans in Chicago, as speakers sought to defend Harris’ record on border security as the Republican party continues to peg the vice president as an advocate for open borders.
Bexar County sheriff Javier Salazar used his short time slot Wednesday to tell delegates Trump’s tough talk on the border isn’t sincere, pointing to reports the former president told Republicans to torpedo a bipartisan immigration bill President Joe Biden implored Congress to pass.
“When Donald Trump comes down to Texas, stands next to officers in uniform just like mine, he’s not there to help us. Don’t think that not for a second. He is a self-serving man,” Salazar said. “Just like when he killed the border bill. He just made our jobs harder.”
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, picked up on that narrative in her Wednesday speech, telling the crowd that Republicans and the media demonize immigrants and the border.
“The border is my beloved home, the place where my children grew up. Forget what you hear on the news. I am from there,” she said. “When it comes to the border, hear me when I say, ‘You know nothing Donald Trump.’”
Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, speaks during the Democratic National Convention, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024, in Chicago.
J. Scott Applewhite / AP
She then took a broader swipe at Republicans who she said have routinely stalled immigration reform legislation over the span of 40 years.
“Congress hasn’t passed comprehensive immigration reform in nearly four decades,” she said. “The three times that they tried, Republicans blocked legislation that would have funded border security and created a more humane immigration system. They are not serious people.”
Escobar also defended Harris’ record on immigration – though she didn’t delve into specifics on what, if anything, Harris will offer as a policy platform.
“I met the vice president when she visited El Paso,” Escobar said about Harris’ only trip to the border more than three years ago. “I saw firsthand how she engaged with law enforcement, migrants and human rights advocates.”
On Wednesday Olivia Troye, a former Trump administration official who was advisor to former Vice President Mike Pence, told the convention why she is casting a vote for the Harris-Walz team after being a lifelong Republican.
Troye, an El Paso native, said that after dreaming her entire life of one day working in the White House, her decision to resign from the administration was a hard choice to make.
“But as an American, it was the right one,” she said. “I saw how Donald Trump undermined our intelligence community, our military leaders and ultimately, our Democratic process. Now, he’s doing it again.”
Troye said the former president is already sowing doubt about the electoral process, “because that is the only way he wins.”
Troye concluded by issuing a call for Republicans dissatisfied with their party’s ticket to support Harris.
“You aren’t voting for a Democrat, you’re voting for democracy,” she said. “You are not betraying our party; you are standing up for our country.”
