Texas Elections | Texas elections: The suburbs are turning purple

Cheers at a Democratic campaign rally in Weslaco, Texas, on October 25: 2.6 million people have moved to Texas since the pandemic hit in 2020, many from Democratic states like California and New York. Photo: Gabriel V. Cardenas / AFP [M] If you drive through the suburbs of Dallas, you'll notice the many small Democratic election posters in the front yards: With "Talarico for Texas," many here want to express their support for the young Senate candidate. Every now and then you can also read the name of the candidate for governor: Gina Hinojosa. The midterms are clearly just around the corner here in Texas: the elections for the US Senate and the House of Representatives, the governorship and other government positions at the regional and local level. And even though Texas has a very conservative reputation, liberals seem to be getting more and louder. Is there actually a break with the Republicans on the horizon here?

Texas is the home state of the Bush clan, which has had two presidents and governors in several states since 1988. Donald Trump had a lead of several hundred thousand votes in each of his three presidential elections, and by 1.5 million in 2024. Two out of three Texans are devout Christians. Strict anti-abortion laws have been in place here for several years. You can't buy alcohol in Texas until 12 noon on Sundays because that time is reserved for church. For most Europeans these are strange conditions. But Texas was already regressive on much more important issues: In no other state was the end of slavery announced as late as here in June 1865. Racial segregation in Texas was not finally abolished until 1970.

It is all the more astonishing how multicultural Texas is today. Here the proportion of the white population is now less than 50 percent. The rest are mainly made up of people with Latin American roots (around 41 percent). Texas, the state with the second most population, also has the largest number of African Americans in the country at 4.3 million and a rapidly growing population of Asian descent. However, these groups don't necessarily vote Democratic - parts of the Indian and Latino communities are quite conservative.

The geographical differences in voting behavior are clearer: the major cities in Texas are blue, meaning they are governed by Democrats - Austin since the 1990s, Dallas since 2006, Houston since 2016. In contrast, rural areas are often deep red on election maps; here there is great support for Trump's MAGA movement and election posters for the Republicans are omnipresent, such as: "Six biological sexes? Liberal freak James Talarico is too crazy for Texas." That's a reference to a long-withdrawn comment from the Democratic Senate candidate. The suburbs, the suburbs of the big cities, were once predominantly Republican-red - but this now seems to be changing; they are increasingly becoming “purple,” as Texans jokingly say. And there are numerous reasons for that.

»Texas ranks 47th out of all 50 states in funding for public schools. We deserve better. Especially the children here.”

During the pandemic, Texas suburbs became attractive to many Americans from Democratic states like California or New York who wanted to work from home: lax mask rules, open restaurants and schools, as well as low taxes and cheap real estate persuaded them to move. 2.6 million people have moved to Texas since 2020, which contributed to the “Lone Star State” having the second largest economic power in the USA after California. These high earners, mostly from generations X and Y, often vote democratically.

But native Texans are also increasingly turning away from the Republicans, caused by a series of disappointments from their politicians. Senator Ted Cruz traveled to Mexico with his family on vacation when a deadly ice storm raged in Texas in the winter of 2021; A public outcry followed; Texans felt abandoned by their senator. Governor Greg Abbott also disappointed voters several times. His 2022 abortion ban led to hundreds of women's deaths caused by a lack of medical care. Doctors who perform abortions now face 99 years in prison in Texas. Kimberly Bower, who therefore switched from red to blue, says: "Women should be allowed to have a say when it comes to their own medical decisions." She is the mother of three daughters.

In 2025, Abbott also introduced a controversial education reform that would allow Texas families to withdraw funds from the public school system and use them as subsidies for homeschooling or private schooling. It is estimated that public schools have lost hundreds of millions of dollars as a result, angering many parents. Gabrielle Dade, wife of a Marine veteran, echoes this anger: “Texas ranks 47th out of all 50 states in per-pupil funding of public schools. We deserve better. Especially the children here.”

Abbott's most recent controversy is his handling of artificial intelligence data centers. His government has approved almost 600 of them. More than 300 are already online. The Texas Tribune recently researched that half of Abbott's campaign donations come from this industry, and corruption is becoming an increasingly important issue in the election campaign. Abbott is currently only a few percentage points ahead of his challenger Gina Hinojosa in polls. The last Democratic governor in Texas was Ann Richards between 1991 and 1995. Since then, her party colleagues have had no chance. Now apparently not anymore.

There hasn't been a Democrat from Texas in the US Senate since 1993. It seems even more likely that something will change. Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general and current Republican candidate, is extremely controversial even within his own party. He was impeached on fraud charges in 2015, removed from his position by the House of Representatives in 2023 for abuse of power, but later acquitted. There are also other professional and private scandals that would require a separate article to list, and almost everyone in Texas is aware of them. Like Kimberly Bower from Plano. "Paxton is amoral, he became a multimillionaire in office and has a catastrophic track record," she says. Currently, the 63-year-old Paxton is currently just behind his 37-year-old opponent James Talarico from the Democrats in polls.

Conservatives who remain loyal to their party fear that the cost of living could rise even faster than it already does under a Democratic government like in California or New York. Consultant Nancy Pfortmiller admits she "doesn't love" Ken Paxton. However, the topics of the economy and taxes came first for them. "Every democratic city in the USA has gone down the drain," says Stefanie Martino, a devout Christian. Many Christians also consider current abortion laws and bans on gender reassignment to be morally correct, and they also support school reforms: around 15 percent of all Texas children are educated at home or in private schools, often because parents find education in public schools too secular.

But there are also voters who have drifted away from the Democrats in recent years due to anti-Semitic tendencies and a lack of support for Israel. James Talarico, for example, supports a ban on the sale of assault weapons to Israel. Governor Abbott, on the other hand, invested in security measures for synagogues and Jewish centers after October 7, 2023. "I don't share Talarico's position of only supplying defensive weapons to Israel," says Tanya G., a Texan with Jewish roots. "I want candidates who unconditionally support our allies." Whether such objections are enough to keep Texas red will be clear at the beginning of November. The suburbs in particular will decide this.

Other media have corporations or billionaires behind them. We have the nd.Genossenschaft and readers like you. That makes us independent and that’s exactly how we want to remain. But it also means: without you the calculation won't work. We need 300,000 euros by the end of the year.

You can donate directly here, one-time or regularly, so that nd stays.