The Biden campaign appears to be setting their sights on taking Texas.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is now scheduled to visit three cities in the Lone Star state on Friday, which is also the last day of early voting in what was once considered a Republican stronghold.
But on Wednesday The Cook Political Report moved Texas from lean Republican to “tossup,” a staggering emotional defeat for the flailing Trump campaign.
Senator Harris is now scheduled to visit Fort Worth, Houston, and McAllen, Texas.
“Fort Worth’s Tarrant County was the state’s most populous county that Republican President Donald Trump won in 2016. But voters there broke slightly for Democrat Beto O’Rourke in his failed 2018 U.S. Senate contest against Ted Cruz,” the Texas Tribune reports.
Meanwhile, The Cook Political Report, the highly-regarded nonpartisan analysis newsletter run by political analyst Charlie Cook just published this headline: “Biden’s Path to 270 Widens, Trump’s Path Narrows, as Texas Moves to Toss Up.”
And added some more bad news for the incumbent.
“To win the election, Trump will need to win every state we currently have in the Toss Up column: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, Ohio, Maine’s 2nd CD, as well as the newest addition, Texas,” Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter writes. “Even then, Trump would be 22 electoral votes short of 270. He would need to win at least two of the seven states currently sitting in Lean Democrat: Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire. Trump carried all but Minnesota, Nevada and New Hampshire in 2016.”
The Biden campaign hasn’t ignore Texas. In fact, they’ve been focused on the state since at least the summer.
“This is the largest presidential investment a campaign has made in Texas in modern history,” Rebecca Acuna, the state director for the Biden campaign, told WFAA in August.
Whoever wins Texas picks up a whopping 38 Electoral votes, about 14 percent of the 270 needed to win.