Not so fast on those non-voters, Texas Dems

Ben Rowan has a great, long piece on how Texas Democrats' assumptions that non-voters are quiet hard tilters to Democrats simply isn't so true.

First of all, this reminds me of parallel claims by DSA Roseys, Greens or Socialists that many Americans really support our ideas. No, they don't. People either don't vote entirely, or undervote a majority of individual races, while still staying registered to vote (the low-hanging fruit on non-voters) for a variety of reasons. That's just as true of the higher fruit, the unregistered.

Rowan first notes that Dems' new registration efforts in 2020 actually wound up handing net new voters to the GOP. Oops. He then notes Dems still haven't won a statewide race since 1994. So, that led him to do actual research.

First, the data. Nationally, they're young (which in general have low turnout), more likely to be non-White, and more likely to be lower education. Sounds Democrat, right?

Not to me. Sounds more like political "Nones," as Rowan indicates. There's just not a lot that either party offers to incentivize them.

Others are apparent victims of vote suppression, when talking about not wanting to wait in line or otherwise waste time voting. Err, there's this thing called early voting? That gets back to education does it not?

Plus, as Rowan notes, Texas is more conservative than the nation as a whole.

But, Texas Democratic Party staffers, who, per Mencken, are paid to be wrong, will probably continue to assume there's magic ponies in that pile of straw of non-voters. It ties in with their assumptions, nearly two decades old now, that "demographics is destiny." I've shown just how untrue this is. This was confirmed, in other ways, just last year.

One final note, which puts a further mockery to my already mocking Beto-Bob for going to Muleshoe. Bowen notes that in 55 counties, let's spell it out as FIFTY-FIVE COUNTIES, there is NO county Democratic party chair. In other worse, nobody to do a voter registration drive to build on whatever enthusiasm O'Rourke built up. But wait, it gets worse:

Texas Monthly reached out to the chairs of the other 199 counties in Texas, and heard from fewer than forty who are leading door-to-door canvassing efforts this election cycle.

I'm sure my county is NOT in the "fewer than 40."