There is so much to absorb in Rebecca Traister's excellent, lengthy profile of Hillary Clinton in New York Magazine (go read it all now), but these two paragraphs near the end deserve special attention:
I asked her whether the time she was spending in Kentucky, a red state, reflected more than her desire to win the primary there the following week (which she did, by a hair). Her eyes lit up; it’s as if she’d been waiting for someone to ask her about the surprising possibilities of the electoral map this year. So which states do you think Trump puts in play? I asked, mentioning the possibility of Georgia, which some think could go Democratic for the first time since her husband won it in 1992.
“Texas!” she exclaimed, eyes wide, as if daring me to question this, which I did. “You are not going to win Texas,” I said. She smiled, undaunted. “If black and Latino voters come out and vote, we could win Texas,” she told me firmly, practically licking her lips.
As far as I can remember, this is the first time that Clinton herself (or possibly anyone in the upper echelon of her campaign) has openly talked about the real possibility of snatching the biggest red state of them all. And since Hillary is not prone to such proclamations without having good data to back it up, she must be seeing some internal polls or other solid info from her campaign that suggests the state might be up for grabs. Or maybe it's just her way of stating the obvious: With Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, all bets are off.
Then again, maybe she's been reading Hillary HQ? I only bring that up because I've been carelessly inviting ridicule for a year now by suggesting the "crazy" idea that Texas could be a swing state as early as 2016. For example:
If Trump is the GOP Nominee, Clinton Could Win TexasHillary Slams Republicans For Obstructing Voter Rights...in TexasHillary Returns to TexasThe Last Clinton Event in Texas...Or Is It?
Now, is it likely that Texas will go blue this year? Probably not. For such an earth-shaking electoral miracle to occur, it would require an explosion in minority voter turnout and a disastrous candidacy by the Republican nominee that gets worse by the day. Oh wait...maybe it is likely?
Her choice of running mate might make a difference as well.
Who knows, but the bottom line is simple: If Hillary thinks she can do it...that's enough for me.
Game on, y'all.
LET'S WIN TEXAS!
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Originally posted at HillaryHQ.com