Could a Bernie Sanders nomination be a death knell for down-ballot Texas Democrats?
Brooke Al Mawla is thrilled that Bernie Sanders is the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
“There’s nothing about him that I don’t love,” said Al Mawla, a 22-year-old Fort Worth woman who saw the Vermont senator speak at a Valentine’s Day rally in Mesquite. “I’ve never seen someone who is so caring and who genuinely wants to fight for the people.”
Al Mawla is much more excited about the possibility of Sanders — a self-described Democratic socialist who advocates for universal health care, an end to student debt and the legalization of marijuana — winning the presidential nomination than some Democrats in Texas.
Some fear that Sanders at the top of the ticket would pave an easy path for President Donald Trump’s re-election and hamper the fight to reclaim a majority in the Texas House of Republicans. That might be why some Republicans reportedly are voting in the Democratic primary, to throw their vote to Sanders.
“They want him to do well,” said Bill Miller, an Austin-based political consultant. “They view him as the godsend of opponents” for Trump.
“And he will not have any coattails. You have a candidate who is not a Democrat. He’s a socialist and he’s running in the Democratic primary. That’s so far afield for what is acceptable. And it’s a death knell for any down-ballot Democrat.”
All of that and more has made Democrats “worried and a little frustrated,” said Matt Angle, who heads the Lone Star Project, a Democratic research and communications political action committee.
Especially since polls in the past few days showed Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden neck-and-neck in Texas, where ballots will be cast Tuesday, along with those in 13 other states.
Angle said a more moderate candidate would let political campaigns make the 2020 presidential election “about Donald Trump and failed Republican leaders.”
In that case, “we don’t have to really worry about the Democratic candidate at the top being a drag on the ticket at all,” he said. “If it’s Bernie, as Texas Democrats, we find ourselves where we have been in the past. ... There will be key issues that our candidates are going to have to openly disagree with our nominee on.
“It’s frustrating because it makes our job harder because Bernie just really is not very reflective of mainstream views in Texas.”
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Alienating voters?
Tarrant County Democratic Party Chairwoman Deborah Peoples said she’s heard the arguments against Sanders.
She’s also heard a different type of argument against nearly every Democratic presidential hopeful.
“Every candidate is going to try to say something that works to their advantage,” she said. “But I don’t think that’s a concern.
“What I’m seeing from Democrats is that they are going to support whomever the nominee is. Democrats want Trump out of office.”
That’s true, many say.
But some believe a more moderate Democrat likely would draw a broader base of support than Sanders, who has a devout grassroots following.
Steve Maxwell, a former Tarrant County Democratic Party chairman, said he believes Democrats will vote for their nominee, just as Republicans will vote for their nominee.
“The difference might be the independent voters, who might not vote at all if Bernie is at the top for Democrats and Trump is at the top for Republicans,” he said. “Getting that independent voter, or disillusioned Republican voter, is the name of the game this time.
“I don’t think Bernie fits the bill, but I’m happy to be proven wrong.”
Democratic angst
The fight for the Texas House could be at stake.
Republicans are trying to keep their majority, as Democrats work to flip the chamber, for next year’s once-every-decade process of redistricting. That’s when the majority party works to redraw boundary lines for U.S. House and Texas House and Senate legislative districts, based on new Census figures.
If Sanders is the nominee, Democrats running for the Texas House and other posts may have to publicly disagree with some of the positions he takes on issues, Angle said.
“That doesn’t mean they aren’t good Democrats and won’t ultimately support the nominee,” he said. “But it becomes a little bit harder in these local races to push the burden back on Republicans to justify their leadership.
“But it can be done.”
Even Republicans are hearing about the angst this presidential race is causing some Democrats.
Tarrant County Republican Party Chairman Rick Barnes said he has heard the concerns.
He personally thinks the interesting part will be the Democratic National Convention and which candidate wins the nomination — and whether the vote goes to super delegates.
Republicans aren’t worried about any of the Democratic presidential candidates, he said.
“We know in the state of Texas that everything they are talking about would be detrimental to our state,” Barnes said. “If they have a bad ballot, it certainly can help our candidates. The reality is that most of our candidates are in good shape anyway.”
He said a “bad ballot” is when a weak candidate is at the top of the ballot.
‘Still a race underway’
When Sanders recently spoke to a crowd of thousands gathered for his Mesquite rally, he predicted he would win Texas on March 3.
And he said if Democrats worked together, they would regain the White House in November.
Peoples, who works to support all Democratic candidates, went to the rally and said she “was floored” at the excitement in the room and the fact that it was a multi-racial, multi-generational and multi-religious crowd.
Al Mawla said she will vote for Sanders in the primary, as she did four years ago, and she hopes he wins the party’s nomination this time.
“He’s amazing,” she said.
But the pure and simple fact is that only four states will have weighed in by Super Tuesday, and 32 will remain afterward.
And that makes it way too early to make any assumptions in the presidential race, Angle said.
“I think people are jumping to conclusion here that Bernie will be the nominee,” he said. “There’s still a race underway.
“I’m not ready to concede that Bernie is the nominee.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
