“Nobody is sitting at home thinking ‘If the Texas Democratic party would only keep doing things the way they’re doing it, we’re on track for success,'” Scudder said.
DALLAS — Seven months into his plan to restructure the Texas Democratic Party, chairman Kendall Scudder has implemented bold moves and is now defending them against critics within his own organization.
“Nobody is sitting at home right now thinking, ‘If the Texas Democratic party would only keep doing things the way they’re doing it, we’re on track for success.’ Every Democrat sitting at home right now wants to see our party shaking it up, doing things differently, seeing that we have a plan of action that’s different from how it’s been in the past,” Scudder told Inside Texas Politics.
Since taking office in March, Scudder has quietly erased the party’s debt and is splitting up the party headquarters.
Scudder said some administrative functions would remain in Austin, but finance and communications would move to Dallas, where he lives, and Houston would house some administration along with a strategic election office since Harris County is home to a quarter of the Democrats in the state.
The Texas Democratic Party will also open organizing offices in Amarillo and Eagle Pass.
“Travis County in Austin has been huge in delivering vote totals for Democrats, but we aren’t having those staff on the ground reaching out to people in places like the 8.3-million people that live in the DFW metroplex, the more than 5 million people in Harris County. I think having staff on the ground deciding where we’re knocking, where’s our targeting, and actually doing it, less than sitting around talking about it, more being in the field and getting it done, that’s how I think it starts to change the strategy,” Scudder explained.
But spreading out party responsibilities and significant investments by left leaning political action committees have created division among Democrats.
Last week, the Texas Observer reported that Texas Majority PAC, backed by billionaire George Soros, has made thousands of phone calls to voters, collected data and recruiting candidates – responsibilities usually performed by party apparatus.
On Inside Texas Politics, Scudder was asked whether Texas Democrats are now outsourcing their work.
“No, absolutely not, but it is awesome whenever we have partners that are willing to come in and help resource what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re all going to be coordinating together. They’re going to have some components that they’re doing on their own. We’re going to have components we’re doing on our own. There are going to be times where we come together in a coordinated fashion everywhere that I am able to do it. I’m happy to do it because I want to make sure we’re operating on a team and we’re not shutting people out. It’s silly to have all of these different groups operating independently of one another in the state.”
Scudder said the Texas Majority PAC would “be a part of our coordinated campaign… we’re literally fighting to save this republic right now and those personalities and that infighting that’s happened in the past, it’s done. We’re all laser focused on one thing winning elections. That’s what our job is.”
Last month, five of the seven paid employees at the party’s Austin headquarters told the Texas Tribune that they would resign rather than move to Dallas or Houston.
The TDP website only lists a handful of job openings. So, who will run the new offices as the party prepares for the important 2026 mid-term elections?
“Anytime you have change in an organization, you’re, it’s going to be a little hard. But in an off year is the time to do it,” Scudder said. “We’re scaling up and you’re gonna have to make sure we have staff that are in those cities that are getting it done. I don’t have exact numbers for you. I didn’t prep that to have it today, but what I’ll tell you is we’re certainly staffing up.”
The first test for Scudder’s vision is a little more than one year away.
Texas Democrats have not won a statewide office in three decades. The party lost seats in the legislature, lost traditionally blue counties in the Rio Grande Valley last year and is poised to lose seats in Congress if a three-judge panel enacts new congressional maps drawn by Republicans.
Scudder’s critics will be watching to see if he can accomplish what has so far eluded them.