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If everyone showed up at the polls, Houston — the largest city in Texas and fourth largest in the U.S. — probably would elect Democrat after Democrat, and then some. But with fewer than one-third of registered voters turning out Tuesday, Texas Democrats again watched their Republican counterparts upend the political landscape.
Though turnout was higher than usual for an off-year election, the numbers clearly did not entirely benefit the blue team. While Texas Democrats saw a longtime member — state Rep. Sylvester Turner — win the most votes for Houston mayor, they also saw the resounding defeat of the city’s polarizing nondiscrimination ordinance and the unexpected failure of a rising star, Adrian Garcia, to make the runoff for the city’s top job.
“It should be a wake-up call to Democrats in Harris County, even looking forward to 2016, in that the GOP at the local level is just a better-run, better-organized organization than their Democratic counterparts,” said Jay K. Aiyer, a Texas Southern University assistant professor of political science and public administration. “Both in terms of voter turnout, message discipline, organization, resources — they’re just better.”
