Dan Patrick, a Republican, acknowledged Thursday that the Lone Star State "turned purple" after Democrats' so-called blue wave swept statewide races and flipped the governor’s office, a U.S. Senate seat and Texas House. During his latest episode of the "Lt.
Dan Podcast," Patrick acknowledged that Texas’ political makeup is shifting left but stopped short of saying the state had turned blue after many others had described it as now a blue state. "Right now, I’d say it’s purple," he said. "We've been winning consistently, and people see it as a red state.
But this time, the Democrats turned out more of their Democrat voters than Republicans turned out of their voters. But what really made the difference were the independent voters, the voters who don't vote in Republican or Democrat primaries. They only vote in general elections.
"For almost every election, we’ve been winning those voters. Will they stay voting for Democrats in the future? Two years ago, they almost all voted for the president.
Four years ago, almost all voted for [Gov.] Greg Abbott, myself and the other Republicans. So, I wouldn’t say we are a blue state, but we’ve turned purple for this moment. TED CRUZ SAYS 'BLUE TSUNAMI' TOOK OVER TEXAS AFTER DEMOCRATS SWEPT STATEWIDE RACES "The wave election, a lot of factors involved from the top down, from Washington down to Texas and all the other states where Republicans lost," Patrick added.
"I would say it's a group of voters who are willing to change their vote election to election depending on how they feel and how they feel about who's in charge. So, we're not a blue state, but we're going to have to work too hard to be sure in '28 and '30 and '32 we don't become one." Patrick, who ran for re-election but lost his race to Democrat Vikki Goodwin, was among the Republicans hit by Democrats' blue wave. Abbott, who was vying for a fourth term, lost in his re-election bid to Democrat Gina Hinojosa, and Texas Attorney General and U.S.
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