AUSTIN, Texas — During their state convention a couple of weeks ago in Dallas, Texas Democrats managed to elect a new chair, but they left the annual gathering without an official platform because they didn’t have a quorum.
Many attendees left after re-electing chair Gilbert Hinojosa, a lengthy vote that required two rounds. Hinojosa says they had to check out of hotels, catch flights or drive home.
And so far, he’s not concerned.
“In the times that I have been the chair in the last ten years, there have been very, very few, if any, changes made to the platform by the convention,” Hinojosa said on Inside Texas Politics. “They take a look at the platform. They, 99% of the time, are happy with what it is as reported out by these two committees that have already met. And they adopt it almost unanimously.”
Hinojosa says they’re now deciding how they’ll go about approving the platform, which represents a party’s goals, principles and strategies, used by candidates and members.
“I think it would be very difficult and cumbersome to try to convene all the delegates again by Zoom. And I’m not sure that would work. I think that what we’re going to do is run it through the executive committee and have the executive committee adopt the platform,” he told us.
And as we get closer to the November election, attention is beginning to focus on South Texas, where Republicans have made a number of recent gains.
Hinojosa says national Democrats are taking the area just as serious as national Republicans.
“The Democratic National Committee is providing funding to the state of Texas to do things like voter registration. The amount of money that they’ve invested with the Texas Democratic Party is unprecedented in Texas to help us put together a massive voter registration program in the state of Texas,” said the chairman.
Hinojosa first took over as chair of the Texas Democratic Party in 2012.