Nancy Pelosi is in an unusual place. She survived a challenge to her leadership from the center when Democrats won the House in 2018. She has since been very aware - as she always is - about the fate of her caucus members from swing districts. Wisely, the DCCC is going to expand their map in 2020. In particular, they are investing heavily in suburban Texas. Texas has always been the great white whale of Democratic strategy since the turn of the century. The demographic changes in Texas suggest that at some point it will surpass Florida as America's most important purple state.
By investing in House races in those suburbs, the DCCC can begin to create networks that could pay off for whoever the 2020 Democratic nominee turns out to be. Clinton managed to win 43.2% of the vote and Trump barely eked out a majority in the once scarlett red Texas. In 2018, candidates for the House split the overall popular vote 50.41% for Republicans and 46.97% for Democrats. That trendline has Democrats salivating. (It is worth noting that Beto O'Rourke narrowly lost and gerrymanders - natural and partisan - meant that the relatively even split of the popular vote was still a 23-13 Republican delegation.
Republican House members are retiring in droves. That was a portent of the 2018 Blue Wave. There could be a second wave in 2020.
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