"More than our wombs": Women in conservative Texas cities mobilizing to end GOP dominance

LUBBOCK — Morgan Kirkpatrick was exhausted.

The longtime Lubbock resident and State Board of Education candidate spent most of her morning with other local Democratic candidates campaigning door-to-door ahead of early voting next week. From there, she went to Mahon Library in downtown Lubbock, where more than a dozen volunteers were already writing postcards to voters for her campaign.

Out of chairs, the former teacher opted to sit on the floor and get to work. Yes, she was physically drained, but she is even more tired of seeing Republicans run unopposed in local elections in Texas’ South Plains region her entire adult life.

“It’s hard because the Democratic Party doesn’t have the infrastructure here like the Republican Party does,” said Kirkpatrick, 39. “Democrats here have always felt like we had to be quiet. But if we were a little louder, people would understand this is a battleground that’s up for grabs.”

Democrats have long imagined a blue wave would roll in to break through the conservative landscape in the heart of the South Plains. It hasn’t happened.

In 2016, 66% of voters in Lubbock County elected former president Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Beto O’Rourke inched a little closer in 2018 — O’Rourke received 35% of the vote in the county while U.S. Senator Ted Cruz had 64%. Trump won the county again in 2020 over President Joe Biden. Gov. Greg Abbott handily won the county over O’Rourke in 2022.



https://www.texastribune.org/2024/10/17/texas-women-voters-election-2024-kamala-harris-abortion/