At their convention, Texas Democrats will target same issues GOP did. But not in same way

When the Texas Democratic Party assembles in El Paso for its three-day state convention, which will start June 6, its members will be in the all-too-familiar position of underdogs.

But they'll be hoping an external force will provide them a measure of optimism heading into the final six months of the 2024 election cycle. And the external force they are looking for will come from Republicans.

Whereas Texas Republicans at their own gathering last week in San Antonio leaned into their legislative and Supreme Court victories on issues such as the near-total statewide ban on a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy and the expansion of gun rights even in the face of deadly mass shooting after deadly mass shooting, Democrats see their own setbacks on those fronts as the battle plan for future success.

At their convention, Democrats will have caucus meetings on stopping gun violence and will have the opportunity to hear from former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was nearly killed when she was shot in the head during a public event in her Arizona congressional district in 2011.

Also scheduled to speak will be David Hogg, who survived the Feb. 14, 2018, mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 dead and 17 others wounded. About three months later, a 17-year-old gunman killed 10 people, including eight students, at Santa Fe High School, near the Texas Gulf Coast. Hogg turned his experience into political activism that includes marches and protests to call attention to gun violence.

U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, who as the party's nominee to challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz will be the keynote speaker in El Paso, has said he expects that the GOP-controlled Legislature's decision to ban abortion without exceptions for rape and incest will be determinative in November for voters who are abortion rights proponents.

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In one of his first TV ads of his Senate candidacy, Allred focused on the abortion issue and contrasted his stance with his opponent's.

"In Texas we believe in freedom, keeping government out of our personal lives," Allred says in the video. "But our state’s extreme abortion ban lets politicians like Ted Cruz decide what care women get, not their doctors."

The focus on gun violence will probably have added resonance at the El Paso convention. Nearly five years ago, the city was the site of a mass shooting at a shopping complex where a gunman specifically targeted people who appeared to be Hispanic. The Aug. 2, 2019, shooting left 23 people dead and dozens more injured.

Polling on both the gun and abortion issues offers a mixed bag for both parties. A Texas Politics Project poll in February showed that a plurality of Texans want fewer restrictions on abortion and nearly three-fourth of Texans think the minimum age for legally purchasing firearms should be 21, not 18.

On its face, it would seem Democrats would be wise to contrast their approach to both issues against the GOP's takes. But the same poll showed that only 4% of voters consider them the most important issues this cycle. Much higher on the list of priorities were border security and immigration.

In San Antonio, some Democratic elected officials sought to get a jump-start on their convention messaging by going to the site of the GOP's assembly Friday.

“The Republican state government continues to take away freedom after freedom, and the people of Texas have a choice: whether they're going to continue to go along with that extremism or whether they're going to take a different path,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, said outside the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. "We offer that different path."

Perhaps they do. But given that Democrats haven't won a statewide office in almost 30 years and haven't had control of one of the legislative chambers in more than 20, that path has been a rocky one. It remains to be seen whether El Paso can alter their course.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas Democrats prepare for El Paso convention. What issues will emerge?