Well, howdy there, internet people, it's Bell again. So today, we're going to talk about why

Democrats are running everywhere in Texas. The Democratic Party recently undertook a massive

recruitment drive in Texas. The party is fielding a candidate in every federal, state house, or state

Senate, and statewide judicial election in the midterms. If you don't know, it's actually not

common for a party to run a candidate in every race. Some districts are viewed as unwinnable,

so the party just gives up on them.

The Texas Democratic Party chair, Kendall Scudder, said the message behind the move was simple.

Quote, no Republican gets a free ride in Texas.

If you are a Republican and you want to hold public office in this state, you're going to have to fight us for it.

I mean, that sounds cool, and it's a good talking point. But I feel like that might not actually be what's going on here.

Now, Democratic strategists have admitted to another reason behind the move. They believe that if they

run candidates in traditionally ruby red areas where they don't normally run, they'll drive voter

turnout that will help candidates at the top of the ballot. Yeah, that makes sense. It's counter to how the strategy normally works,

where it's the big names at the top of the ticket that actually help drive turnout for the

candidates further down ballot. But it absolutely makes sense that the reverse can be true

in this situation. Now, the GOP isn't taking the effort seriously,

openly calling it a gimmick, or saying that it doesn't matter unless the Democratic Party

puts serious resources behind the candidates running in the ruby red areas. Governor Greg Abbott's chief strategists said, quote,

When they start funding these outliers, get back to me.

I'm going to say that while the Democratic Party's public talking points are completely valid,

in fact, we've seen races where candidates running in typically

uncontested areas helped up-ballot candidates in Texas. And sure, running everywhere makes the

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