Democrats hopeful GOP conservatism will turn voters to Dems
The Texas Republican Party over the weekend adopted a plank calling for a ‘guest worker’ program for illegal immigrants, a move which forced a quick pivot by the Texas Democratic Party, which had fueled its convention with talk of how hostile to Hispanics the state GOP was supposedly becoming, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Both parties held their conventions over the weekend, the Republicans in Ft. Worth and the Democrats in Houston.
The Democrats talked more about Republicans than about themselves at their convention, blasting the GOP in speech after speech for becoming more intolerant towards Hispanics, and predicting that would bring voters toward the Democrats, who haven’t elected a single candidate to statewide office since 1994.
But when the GOP unexpectedly approved a plank softening it’s position on illegal immigration, the Democrats for forced to quickly pivot, moving from criticizing the GOP for ignoring and being hostile to Hispanics to criticizing the GOP for being hostile to Hispanics.
The Republican Party also removed a plank from it’s platform which had been inserted two years ago which called for punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants.
Some Republicans at the convention denounced the planks as ‘amnesty.’
It was the type of pubic debate which characterized the three day GOP convention. Much of the party was marked by passionate squabbling between its moderate and conservative wings, with supports of conservative U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz booing Gov. Rick Perry when he announced his support for Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst for the U.S. Senate. Many conservatives consider Dewhurst to be insufficiently conservative.
Conservatives also walked out on House Speaker Joe Straus when he spoke to the convention, even though he resoundingly won his primary race against a conservative opponent.
The Democrats elected former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa to be it’s first ever Hispanic chairman. Hinojosa told the convention that it must work harder to convince traditional Democratic voters to go to the polls, especially in the state’s urban areas.
