A series of emails obtained by The Messenger reveal disagreements on 2024 strategy between the Texas Democratic Party and a major new outside group funded by the billionaire philanthropist and liberal donor George Soros, as Democrats in the state grapple with how to turn demographic headwinds and progress into meaningful electoral wins up and down the ballot.
In four emails dated from Oct. 4 to Oct. 17 between Texas Democratic Party executive director Monique Alcala and Texas Majority PAC directors Katherine Fischer and Jason Lee, Alcala pointedly asks for the group's 2022 post-mortem, the statewide plan and budget for 2024, as well as what accountability will be built into the plan and how the group will evaluate the people it works with and hires.
"The last thing our party needs is programmatic fracture and duplication of effort on a massive scale," Alcala writes in the Oct. 4 email provided to The Messenger by a source who had recent access to the correspondence.
Ultimately, Alcala tells the group she wants to figure out how to work with them but is still dubious of their 2024 plans. This is due to concerns among Texas Democrats that Texas Majority PAC is looking to go around the party to work with county parties, feels it does not owe the Texas Democratic party anything, and won't be a partner that will reliably share details.
In a long Oct. 8 response, Lee agrees with Alcala, saying that "we fundamentally share the belief that a strong Texas Democratic party is essential for the viability of Democratic politics in Texas" but that ultimately the most important thing to keep in mind is how big of an endeavor Democrats are undertaking in Texas.
"In a nutshell, Texas Democrats need close to a billion more dollars a cycle and an exponential increase in capacity and talent across the state at every level from party organization, external PACs, vendors, partisan media organizations and campaigns," he writes. "The national donor community is the key to the viability of operations in every Battleground state and Texas will be no different. The difference in Texas will be the sheer scale of resources required."
The group, whose website says it is a project dedicated to electing a Democrat to statewide office in Texas and is conducting research to understand what it will take to win the state, was initially funded by Soros’ Democracy PAC II, which gave it $750,000 to start, according to FEC filings in August.
Tension between new organizations and existing statewide groups is not new, but it doesn't often make the leap from private grumbling to correspondence made public.
It may be partly due to the fact that there are high stakes in the fastest growing state in the country, where the majority of the 420,000 new residents last year were under 44 and people of color.
That's the argument Texas Majority PAC is making in presentations to funders and allied groups, according to the presentation slides also obtained by The Messenger. The slides point out that the White share of registered voters in Texas dropped 10 points from 2000 to 2020, while Latino vote share grew 20% and AAPI doubled from 2012 to 2020.
Whether Texas Democrats were frustrated with the way the group has thrown its weight around in 2023 or supportive of a fresh new player working to turn the state blue, they all mentioned how important the group could be financially in the Lone Star state, with the group rumored to be receiving $20 million more from the Soros PAC that funds it.
In an interview with The Messenger, Fischer did not confirm or deny that the group could receive a large $20 million injection into the state for its work, but said it is working on raising a "significant amount."
"If we can raise tens of millions that would be great," she said, explaining that the group would spend it on securing high quality talent and operating at a "higher scale than we normally can in Texas."
As for charges that the group isn't playing nice with the Texas Democratic Party, Fischer said the "best possible version" of what happens this cycle is that "those moving significant resources are talking to each other about how those resources are being moved to align on moving certain types of programs" in the state.
She said that because of the size of the state, her group is looking at doing their work regionally because Texas "culturally distinct" cities and counties that are the size of states.
"Driving voter turnout comes down to what people in those regions are doing and whether they have resources to do it," she said. "The opportunity TMP presents is to create regionally specific programming candidates are unable to do as easily."
Conversations with Fischer and Lee, two former leaders of the losing Beto O'Rourke campaign for governor last year, often return to the scale of the challenge in a state of 30 million people with over 20 media markets.
"To put in perspective, the Beto campaign spent more on GOTV mail than the [Texas Democratic Party] spent on all of its programming the entire cycle in 2022," Lee wrote in an email to Alcala, "and the Beto campaign wasn't able to spend nearly as much on GOTV mail as it needed or wanted to."
"That says nothing about the millions of GOTV coordinated paid canvassing that the Beto campaign carried or the tens of millions it spent on building out the organizing apparatus for a statewide volunteer program," he added.
Fischer said part of the challenge in reaching its goals is that many national Democrats are skeptical and understandably believe spending in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, or Georgia is more urgent.
"Part of our work is to show to national donors Texas is a viable vehicle for investment," she said. "That's incumbent on everyone — us, the party, all PACs and campaigns working on this — to show proof to national donors that we’re worth investing in."
Manny Garcia, Alcala's predecessor called Texas a "great, big, beautiful state," but one where Republicans can tap hundreds of millions of dollars with a handful of phone calls, as they did when longtime GOP consultant Karl Rove called millionaire donors in 2020 to stop Democratic momentum on a voter registration advantage.
For that reason Democrats "need every single cent coming into Texas by any means necessary," he said.
Still, he called the Texas Democratic Party the "key" cog relied on by every progressive entity on the ballot.
"It's the backbone of data infrastructure, the go to quote for reporters on anything that happens in Texas Democratic politics, and the entity with 100% name ID," he told The Messenger. "You can not run a race without the party, you may think you are, but you're not. From block walkers and phone bankers, to the voter file being powered by the state party. Every Democratic party mail piece, even a Biden mail piece, goes through parties to make sure the expenditure is as efficient it can be."
Delilah Agho-Otoghile, the executive director of the Texas Future Project, a progressive donor alliance, said gaps have narrowed in recent state elections and her group "has been proud to build and invest over the past decade to create a permanent progressive movement, together with our partners, that Texans can count on."
"We're thrilled about the increased interest in Texas from new organizations and funders, and we look forward to working in partnership with the Texas Majority PAC to deliver the change Texans demand," she said.
A senior Texas Democrat said recent Republican infighting stemming from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial and hardline immigration moves at the border by Governor Greg Abbott reminded them of when Texas Democrats Jim Mattox and Ann Richard began fighting in the Democratic primary in the 90's, presaging the party beginning to unravel in terms of its dominance in the state.
They said infighting among Republicans is an important ingredient for Democrats to become ascendant, but programs must be done right and money shouldn't be wasted.
"Generally, it's good when you have more well-funded organizations taking an interest in Texas, but that money has to be well spent by people who know how and where to spend it," the Democrat said. "Otherwise it's just a money-making operation for consultants to hire their friends from the University of Minnesota to work in Houston."
Many Texas Democratic leaders also defended Alcala and the position she's in as the first woman of color to lead the Texas Democratic Party and the third Latino to have the role.
"You have a new dynamic leader but at the same time a lack of investment and resources to flow through her, which people find to be a problematic undermining of party leadership and her leadership when resources are funneled through other groups," a Texas Democratic leader said.
"Monique is the third woman and first woman of color and the donor space is tough on people of color as it is," a Texas Latino leader said. "It ain’t easy and you’re fundraising for permanent infrastructure and permanent infrastructure is not as sexy."
In a statement, Alcala told The Messenger she feels it is her responsibility to build as large a coalition as possible in order for Texas Democrats to have a real shot at victory in 2024.
"We are laser-focused on the work to support our county parties, candidates and partners in 2024 because we know what’s at stake," she said. "We are the largest battleground in the country and we welcome all partners and investment in the Party so that we can win in 2024.”
Asked about the group's presentation calling for one million new Democrats to close the average statewide 720,000 vote deficit, which could mean turning the state blue by 2032, Fischer again pointed to the scale of what Texas Majority PAC and Democrats are looking to do in the state.
"We are lifelong Texans, native Texans, we've worked in Texas for a long time, we just want to do our part to flip the state. We imagine it will take a long time, we hope we get lucky before 2032," she said, with a sigh. "But we're doing what we can with a large, complicated web of people doing important things."
In four emails dated from Oct. 4 to Oct. 17 between Texas Democratic Party executive director Monique Alcala and Texas Majority PAC directors Katherine Fischer and Jason Lee, Alcala pointedly asks for the group's 2022 post-mortem, the statewide plan and budget for 2024, as well as what accountability will be built into the plan and how the group will evaluate the people it works with and hires.
"The last thing our party needs is programmatic fracture and duplication of effort on a massive scale," Alcala writes in the Oct. 4 email provided to The Messenger by a source who had recent access to the correspondence.
Ultimately, Alcala tells the group she wants to figure out how to work with them but is still dubious of their 2024 plans. This is due to concerns among Texas Democrats that Texas Majority PAC is looking to go around the party to work with county parties, feels it does not owe the Texas Democratic party anything, and won't be a partner that will reliably share details.
In a long Oct. 8 response, Lee agrees with Alcala, saying that "we fundamentally share the belief that a strong Texas Democratic party is essential for the viability of Democratic politics in Texas" but that ultimately the most important thing to keep in mind is how big of an endeavor Democrats are undertaking in Texas.
"In a nutshell, Texas Democrats need close to a billion more dollars a cycle and an exponential increase in capacity and talent across the state at every level from party organization, external PACs, vendors, partisan media organizations and campaigns," he writes. "The national donor community is the key to the viability of operations in every Battleground state and Texas will be no different. The difference in Texas will be the sheer scale of resources required."
The group, whose website says it is a project dedicated to electing a Democrat to statewide office in Texas and is conducting research to understand what it will take to win the state, was initially funded by Soros’ Democracy PAC II, which gave it $750,000 to start, according to FEC filings in August.
Tension between new organizations and existing statewide groups is not new, but it doesn't often make the leap from private grumbling to correspondence made public.
It may be partly due to the fact that there are high stakes in the fastest growing state in the country, where the majority of the 420,000 new residents last year were under 44 and people of color.
That's the argument Texas Majority PAC is making in presentations to funders and allied groups, according to the presentation slides also obtained by The Messenger. The slides point out that the White share of registered voters in Texas dropped 10 points from 2000 to 2020, while Latino vote share grew 20% and AAPI doubled from 2012 to 2020.
Whether Texas Democrats were frustrated with the way the group has thrown its weight around in 2023 or supportive of a fresh new player working to turn the state blue, they all mentioned how important the group could be financially in the Lone Star state, with the group rumored to be receiving $20 million more from the Soros PAC that funds it.
In an interview with The Messenger, Fischer did not confirm or deny that the group could receive a large $20 million injection into the state for its work, but said it is working on raising a "significant amount."
"If we can raise tens of millions that would be great," she said, explaining that the group would spend it on securing high quality talent and operating at a "higher scale than we normally can in Texas."
As for charges that the group isn't playing nice with the Texas Democratic Party, Fischer said the "best possible version" of what happens this cycle is that "those moving significant resources are talking to each other about how those resources are being moved to align on moving certain types of programs" in the state.
She said that because of the size of the state, her group is looking at doing their work regionally because Texas "culturally distinct" cities and counties that are the size of states.
"Driving voter turnout comes down to what people in those regions are doing and whether they have resources to do it," she said. "The opportunity TMP presents is to create regionally specific programming candidates are unable to do as easily."
Conversations with Fischer and Lee, two former leaders of the losing Beto O'Rourke campaign for governor last year, often return to the scale of the challenge in a state of 30 million people with over 20 media markets.
"To put in perspective, the Beto campaign spent more on GOTV mail than the [Texas Democratic Party] spent on all of its programming the entire cycle in 2022," Lee wrote in an email to Alcala, "and the Beto campaign wasn't able to spend nearly as much on GOTV mail as it needed or wanted to."
"That says nothing about the millions of GOTV coordinated paid canvassing that the Beto campaign carried or the tens of millions it spent on building out the organizing apparatus for a statewide volunteer program," he added.
Fischer said part of the challenge in reaching its goals is that many national Democrats are skeptical and understandably believe spending in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, or Georgia is more urgent.
"Part of our work is to show to national donors Texas is a viable vehicle for investment," she said. "That's incumbent on everyone — us, the party, all PACs and campaigns working on this — to show proof to national donors that we’re worth investing in."
Manny Garcia, Alcala's predecessor called Texas a "great, big, beautiful state," but one where Republicans can tap hundreds of millions of dollars with a handful of phone calls, as they did when longtime GOP consultant Karl Rove called millionaire donors in 2020 to stop Democratic momentum on a voter registration advantage.
For that reason Democrats "need every single cent coming into Texas by any means necessary," he said.
Still, he called the Texas Democratic Party the "key" cog relied on by every progressive entity on the ballot.
"It's the backbone of data infrastructure, the go to quote for reporters on anything that happens in Texas Democratic politics, and the entity with 100% name ID," he told The Messenger. "You can not run a race without the party, you may think you are, but you're not. From block walkers and phone bankers, to the voter file being powered by the state party. Every Democratic party mail piece, even a Biden mail piece, goes through parties to make sure the expenditure is as efficient it can be."
Delilah Agho-Otoghile, the executive director of the Texas Future Project, a progressive donor alliance, said gaps have narrowed in recent state elections and her group "has been proud to build and invest over the past decade to create a permanent progressive movement, together with our partners, that Texans can count on."
"We're thrilled about the increased interest in Texas from new organizations and funders, and we look forward to working in partnership with the Texas Majority PAC to deliver the change Texans demand," she said.
A senior Texas Democrat said recent Republican infighting stemming from Attorney General Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial and hardline immigration moves at the border by Governor Greg Abbott reminded them of when Texas Democrats Jim Mattox and Ann Richard began fighting in the Democratic primary in the 90's, presaging the party beginning to unravel in terms of its dominance in the state.
They said infighting among Republicans is an important ingredient for Democrats to become ascendant, but programs must be done right and money shouldn't be wasted.
"Generally, it's good when you have more well-funded organizations taking an interest in Texas, but that money has to be well spent by people who know how and where to spend it," the Democrat said. "Otherwise it's just a money-making operation for consultants to hire their friends from the University of Minnesota to work in Houston."
Many Texas Democratic leaders also defended Alcala and the position she's in as the first woman of color to lead the Texas Democratic Party and the third Latino to have the role.
"You have a new dynamic leader but at the same time a lack of investment and resources to flow through her, which people find to be a problematic undermining of party leadership and her leadership when resources are funneled through other groups," a Texas Democratic leader said.
"Monique is the third woman and first woman of color and the donor space is tough on people of color as it is," a Texas Latino leader said. "It ain’t easy and you’re fundraising for permanent infrastructure and permanent infrastructure is not as sexy."
In a statement, Alcala told The Messenger she feels it is her responsibility to build as large a coalition as possible in order for Texas Democrats to have a real shot at victory in 2024.
"We are laser-focused on the work to support our county parties, candidates and partners in 2024 because we know what’s at stake," she said. "We are the largest battleground in the country and we welcome all partners and investment in the Party so that we can win in 2024.”
Asked about the group's presentation calling for one million new Democrats to close the average statewide 720,000 vote deficit, which could mean turning the state blue by 2032, Fischer again pointed to the scale of what Texas Majority PAC and Democrats are looking to do in the state.
"We are lifelong Texans, native Texans, we've worked in Texas for a long time, we just want to do our part to flip the state. We imagine it will take a long time, we hope we get lucky before 2032," she said, with a sigh. "But we're doing what we can with a large, complicated web of people doing important things."
