Fort Bend Democrats Party determined to turn county blue

fortbendstar.com ^ | Betsy Dolan

[Tailgunner Joe]

A few months ago, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa sat down with Wendy Davis to talk about strategy for her 2014 gubernatorial run.

“We told her, ‘You cannot win unless we take it to a different level’”, Hinojosa said.

It’s a message that Fort Bend Democrats are hearing as well.

“I think we can turn Fort Bend County blue and the best way is with a lot of green”, Congressman Al Green told the sold out crowd at the annual Noche Azul fundraising event at Sweetwater Country Club on January 24.

With changing demographics, a divided national Republican party and a public weary of gridlock in Washington, keynote speaker Congressmen Joaquin Castro of San Antonio, told the audience that the tide is changing in Fort Bend County.

“Republicans in Texas are getting more and more extreme,” Castro said. “Nihilism is masquerading as conservatism and we need to root it out”.

Castro spoke about building an “infrastructure of opportunity” that allows all Americans to succeed. He specifically called for improvements to education, re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act, raising the minimum wage and immigration reform.

“Ted Cruz tells the story about his father fleeing Cuba and finding a home in the U.S”, Castro said. “And he says the reason people come to the U.S. is because we’re a country of low taxes and low regulation. Of all the immigrants I have ever met, no one has ever told me that they were coming to America because of the low tax rate.”

Castro urged the audience to block walk, utilize social media and get involved in the November election that has two Democratic women vying for governor and Lieutenant Governor, and one that will set the stage for 2016.

“On election night, we’ll be watching Fox News and Bret Baier will be sitting next to Karl Rove and he’ll say,’Karl we have breaking news. For the first time ever, the state of Texas has gone blue and our next president of the United States is Hillary Rodham Clinton’”.

Congressman Al Green said he would never give up on comprehensive health care for all Americans and vowed to fight any steps backward from health care to “wealth care”.

“In a country where we can pay a CEO $400 every second, surely we can find away to make health care affordable and accessible for all Americans”, Green said.

Texas Democrats are also excited about their aggressive vote-by-mail campaign that allows seniors, the disabled, Texans traveling abroad and those in jail to receive a ballot for all elections in 2014 without showing voter identification.

[VerySadAmerican]

Too bad Sheila Jackson Lee wasn’t there to talk about the flag we left on Mars. I guess they weren’t handing out money so she had to be elsewhere.