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Episode 1: Kendall Scudder on Rebuilding the Texas Democratic Party
48 Plays2 days ago
Texas Democratic Party Chair Kendall Scudder joins Mission: Texas hosts Kate Rumsey and Alex Clark to talk about rebuilding the Texas Democratic Party from the ground up and what it will take to flip Texas by 2032. Scudder shares his plan for strengthening grassroots infrastructure, filling precinct and county chair vacancies, launching Spanish-language communications, investing in data and voter protection, and promoting bold economic populism that reconnects Democrats with working Texans.
This episode covers:
- Redistricting and why it can’t stop statewide wins
- How Democrats can overcome turnout gaps
- The role of the state party in messaging, data, and compliance
- How to get involved locally and help fund lasting infrastructure
🎙 Mission: Texas explores long-term Democratic strategy, faith, and service in the fight to flip Texas — and with Kendall Scudder’s vision, that mission is just getting started.
Transcript
Introduction to Mission Texas Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Howdy. This is Mission Texas. A political podcast about winning Texas by 2032 or else we may lose the White House for a generation.
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm one of your hosts, Alex Clark. And I am Kate Rumsey. Other podcasts may focus on the day to day or the next election. But we are keeping the eyes of Texas on the bigger prize.
00:00:23
Speaker
What happens after the next census?
00:00:27
Speaker
Hello, this is Mission Texas podcast, a political podcast about flipping Texas by 2032, or we may lose the White House for a generation. i am one of your hosts, Kate Rumsey.
00:00:39
Speaker
Hi, and I'm Alex Clark.
Meet Kendall Scudder, Texas Democratic Party Chair
00:00:41
Speaker
Today we have our first ever guest, our friend, a new father, native Texan, a millennial like us, and the chair of the Texas Democratic Party.
00:00:50
Speaker
You may have seen him recently on MSNBC, on CNN, and bunch of other news stations. guy's everywhere. He's a force to be reckoned with. Kendall Scudder, welcome to the podcast. I don't know about all that, but I sure appreciate y'all having me on your inaugural episode today. That's very exciting.
00:01:07
Speaker
Who better than to start with? Kendall, I mean, our friend and now chair of the the party and a new father. I wanted to start with that. How are you doing all of this? And how's the baby and mom?
00:01:18
Speaker
Well, I'm only doing all of this because my wife is a rock star. but that That is how I'm doing this. This is what I do to volunteer to help the cause. And what she does to volunteer to help the cause is pick up all my slack. So ah I've just been really grateful. But our son, Lyndon, is now five weeks old.
00:01:38
Speaker
So when he was two weeks old, I was leaving the state to go to Chicago with our reps. And, you know, I'm i'm doing my best to try to keep up as best I can.
00:01:49
Speaker
Lyndon, what an incredible Texas Democrat name for for a baby boy. I know. Everybody keeps saying like the tree. I'm like, no, like the B. Johnson. Yeah. The famous Texas Democrat. Yeah.
00:02:01
Speaker
It reminds you of the time when we elected Democrats statewide, right? you know What a dream. Yeah, that was a wonderful time. Wish we could get back to that. But yeah, so so doing doing all of that has kind of gotten me on, as you mentioned, all these fun shows.
00:02:15
Speaker
I'm just wondering how much of a do I have to do before I become MSNBC's Kendall Scudder? for now oh For now, I'm just TDP's Kendall Scudder, so... Get this man in contract, okay?
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, maybe that's what I'll hunt for.
Why is Texas Crucial for Democrats?
00:02:30
Speaker
Okay, but in all seriousness, the the the point of this podcast is to focus on the long term. You know, if we don't get this figured out on a statewide level by 2032, we're going to, like we said at the beginning, like we could basically kiss the White House goodbye because the math just doesn't math.
00:02:47
Speaker
Even with the blue wall, you don't get to the electoral votes you need. And so I know that redistricting is huge in the news right now. But you can't gerrymander a statewide election.
00:02:58
Speaker
You can't gerrymander Texas's electoral votes for president. And so as you think about that longer term problem, how how is this this new gerrymandering, how are these new districts going to play into that? I have something of a hot take, but I want to hear what you have to say about this first.
00:03:18
Speaker
Well, I mean, look, this is the reality of it, Alex, is that
The Impact of Gerrymandering on Texas Politics
00:03:22
Speaker
national Democrats are starting to realize the importance of Texas. That, ah you know, even if you hold this whole blue wall, the way the census is going to jostle out in the next cycle is that if we don't win either Texas or North Carolina in 2023, or right sorry, 2032, then that's all she wrote for the Democratic Party for the next decade.
00:03:44
Speaker
And so not only are the national Democrats starting to get that, but national Republicans are too. And so that's why you're seeing them pushing these huge redistricting efforts on us on a state level.
00:03:57
Speaker
You can't redistrict to statewide, but you can redistrict all these congressional races down ballot, making people feel like their votes don't count, giving them less reasons to want to show up and vote.
00:04:07
Speaker
So they redrew this map. And by 2024
Grassroots Organizing: A Strategy to Flip Texas
00:04:10
Speaker
data, it would say that Democrats would lose five seats. They did it by disenfranchising minorities. ah It will now take a Hispanic Texan three votes to equal the representational vote of one white Texan.
00:04:23
Speaker
It'll take a black Texan five votes to equal the representational vote of a white Texan. And so by disenfranchising minorities, what they've accomplished is taking away seats from Democrats. However, if you look beyond the 24 data, if you go back to the 2018 data, I've seen some 2018 data that shows us winning a seat on this map.
00:04:48
Speaker
So are minority groups still underrepresented? And is this map bad for representational purposes? Absolutely. However, the way we fight back is to tell Republicans to take these maps and shove it up their ass.
00:05:01
Speaker
And we do that by organizing and by saying every single district will leave no stone unturned. It's not us saying that we're trying to accomplish something that's never been done. We did it just six years ago.
00:05:13
Speaker
We can do it again, but it's only if we are channeling and harnessing the power of people and and realizing you can't lock a bunch of consultants in a room in Austin and have them buy our way out of
Legal Challenges and Progressive Wins in Texas
00:05:24
Speaker
this problem.
00:05:25
Speaker
This is about organizing in every single corner of this state to build a grassroots movement to be able to flip the state back. That's how I see these maps. Now, I will remind everyone, these maps aren't codified yet. They've been signed by the governor, but we're in court, October one Starting the fight on these maps.
00:05:44
Speaker
In 60 years of the Voting Rights Act, Texas has violated it every single time the maps have been drawn. and The progressives who challenged it in court have won every single time.
00:05:56
Speaker
And I don't expect this one to be any different. I don't think that these maps are set in stone yet, but we're going to go ahead and operate as if they are and start that work now. So we're not caught flat footed, but ah I think Texas can really rebel back. And if I'm in Vegas and I'm putting my money on anything, it's going to be a scrappy Texan.
00:06:15
Speaker
Yeah.
Could Political Challenges Benefit Texas Democrats?
00:06:16
Speaker
By the dip. um I've been saying this for years now. but and So two things in your answer I heard that I want to echo. The first is that the national Democrats have paid attention and they're going to be pouring in resources.
00:06:28
Speaker
And the second is that we're going to have to organize and work against these this new maps. My hot take might get me in trouble with some people is that there are going to be some unintentional benefits long term that are coming out of this.
00:06:48
Speaker
And because it's, as we have established, you can't gerrymander a state um for these statewide elections. I think what's gonna happen, based on the things you just said, is that we are going to see a sleeping dog that is no longer lying.
00:07:07
Speaker
you're gonna see finally the end to the longest statewide losing streak in the country. And wanna pause there park just for a moment. our Our listeners might not realize that Texas has not elected a Democrat to any statewide position or awarded it like its electoral votes to a Democrat statewide longer than any other state in the country. That's Republican or Democrat has done it in reverse, right?
00:07:33
Speaker
Every blue state has a elected Republican more recently. every red state has elected a Democrat more recently. And so I think we had kind of been, look as and when I say we, I mean like activists, voters, people who care, have been kind of lulled into a sense of defeatism, a sense that, oh, why bother with this cycle? you know It's always going to be what it's always going to be. When in fact, we've seen the numbers get better over the last several cycles.
00:08:02
Speaker
ah We are not the reddest state in the country, and there is no excuse, really, for us to have this longest losing streak. So what I think is the sleeping dog is no longer lying.
00:08:13
Speaker
And if we're being honest, some of the Democratic elected officials who have their fiefdoms and they have their parts of the state where they don't really have to try beyond winning their primary,
00:08:28
Speaker
This is a fire alarm fire for their careers because as these maps stand, a number of them aren't going to be coming back to Congress next next time, right?
00:08:39
Speaker
And they're going have their huge campaign war chest going to have to fight for their political life. Yeah. Well, can I piggyback off of that? Because... I also picked up from what Kendall's saying on a couple of things that I have a hot take on as well. And I want your opinion, Kendall, which is, know, we've got a lot of voter apathy, which is what I believe is happening with our over gerrymandered districts, as you mentioned.
00:09:02
Speaker
So then how, how do we organize within those areas when you have Congress people who don't have dollars coming to them from donors, because they're saying, why would I want to donate to somebody who's going to win anyways? And then also, you know,
00:09:17
Speaker
I agree with what you're saying um on you know, now we have to fight for our lives in all these districts. So maybe it will get people to think about um these seats so that people will get interested in their areas. And I think that their vote does matter because I want to go to every door in a safe seat Democrats area and say, we need your vote. Like we need every single vote out there. And if you don't think you matter in this area, you will matter across the state. So How are we going to do that? And really, what is the role of the state party?
The Role of the State Party in Voter Messaging
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:48
Speaker
So let me start with some of what Alex said, and I'll move to that, Kate. On the first thing that Alex said was ah national resources pulling into Texas.
00:09:59
Speaker
Sure hope so. ah But don't count on it. And don't sit around thinking that that's what's going to solve the problem. I genuinely, i'm sure, there's certainly an issue with us being under-resourced in this state.
00:10:13
Speaker
Raising a whole lot of money in Texas looks very different than raising a whole lot of money in Wisconsin because we have 20 media markets. We're a giant state. and I want Texas and ah Texans and their their grassroots to operate. The cavalry not coming.
00:10:30
Speaker
We are the cavalry that have to figure this out. And when we start to do that, those funders and those people looking to invest are going to see something worth investing in. Where I think that we've fallen into a trap in the past is sitting around thinking, when is somebody going to come and do this?
00:10:45
Speaker
This is your turn. and every one of us have to figure out how to get this accomplished. So sure, there may be resources. i sure hope so. But I'm not betting on it. And we're going to figure it out whether those resources are there or not by just rolling up our sleeves and getting to work.
00:11:01
Speaker
Now, on your topic, Kate, making people feel that their vote counts, it's more than just making sure they feel that their vote counts. I think they know that if they show up and cast a ballot, it goes into a pile.
00:11:15
Speaker
What I don't think they know is that there's something worth them spending their time to do that for. So great, you show up and you cast a ballot and the Democrats win. Well, how does that impact my life in any way?
00:11:27
Speaker
Because frankly, for the last 30, 40 years, I've seen a Democratic Party that's just been, you know, basically on a do not resuscitate.
00:11:39
Speaker
mean, it's a party that hasn't come to the table with big, bold, progressive ideas like they used to. was The reason that people used to be Democrats is because Democrats earned that. My granddaddy was born alone with nobody in the room, mama, into a wash bucket on a farm that only had electricity because of Franklin Roosevelt, Sam Rayburn, the new Democratic Party.
00:12:02
Speaker
And we were pulled out of poverty by the new by the great society that reduced poverty in this country by 75% Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security expansions. What are we seeing the party run on these days?
00:12:14
Speaker
We see the party running on things like you should be able to see a doctor when you're sick. Well, bullshit. You should be able to see a doctor before you're sick. yeah Talking about preserving social security.
00:12:25
Speaker
Horseshit. We should be talking about expanding social security. What are we doing to flip tables and to knock things down on behalf of working people and poor people who need someone in their court fighting for them?
00:12:38
Speaker
That's our lane. And we haven't been filling it So I say all of that to make a point. It's not just showing up and telling them that their vote counts. It's showing up and telling them that their vote's worth it.
00:12:50
Speaker
It's worth them taking time off of work or them having to figure out how to squeeze this in in their really hectic life schedule to make it count. And we can't convince everyone of that because they've never seen a party do that in recent memory.
00:13:04
Speaker
And so the people were able to convince and sell on that big, bold idea. We then have an obligation to deliver on those things. And when we do that, we get back to a point where we have earned people's support. where people will say, yeah, you better believe I vote for Democrats because they're the only ones looking out for me. But if we're not doing that and presenting that to people, it's our own fault. It's nobody's fault but our own.
00:13:27
Speaker
Stop blaming people for not showing up. Stop blaming people um who who didn't see us as worth it and start blaming ourselves. And that's kind of the direction that I'm wanting to take the party in. A little bit of accountability, a little bit of introspection, a little bit of reframing.
00:13:41
Speaker
um It's nobody's fault but ours that our messaging has been off. Kennell, this always makes me think so much of how we got to know each other in the first place. Yeah. 2008, 2007, the primary between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. And I think it put it in stark relief, right?
00:13:58
Speaker
what what Whether you love or hate Hillary Clinton at that time represented old guard democratic politics and Barack Obama represented change. Big, bold, beautiful letters.
00:14:09
Speaker
And he campaigned on things that got people excited. And and to your their first point, right? Like North Carolina flipped that year. ah That's a pretty significant thing to have happened in 2008. Indiana flipped.
00:14:23
Speaker
Indiana, yeah. Lots of places you wouldn't have thought we were competitive. And I think you're right, it's because it was animating. It got people excited. You and I were east Texas Obama boys, our seniors in high school, interning for the Obama campaign, right?
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah. I think there's something to that. And ah for too long, I think what I'm hearing and what I agree with is that we're seen as the kind of incrementalists who negotiate against ourselves.
00:14:52
Speaker
um instead of putting forth what we really believe in and what we think the country needs. And so um I think that's, that's an excellent message and I think we'll hope more, more Democrats hear it.
00:15:04
Speaker
Well, and then what happened when Obama got elected, Alex? but Well, that's what i'm saying. i I think we negotiated it against ourselves and we, we allowed the filibuster to dictate what we were able to get accomplished and, He could redo a lot of things. I would hope we would.
00:15:18
Speaker
hope we would have ah passed a public option, for example. I think we would have avoided a lot of the problems we're dealing with today. Yeah, cruising to victory on hopes and dreams and then not delivering on those hopes.
00:15:28
Speaker
And then people look back and they say, you know, you got me all excited about this before and you didn't deliver on it. And so, you know, it's our own fault. I love me some Barack Obama. Don't get me wrong.
00:15:39
Speaker
But the ACA, as good as it was, wasn't as good as it needed to be. And that was our opportunity to come to the table with a really big idea where we would take on whatever big pharma we needed to to get one over for the little guy. We didn't do it.
00:15:54
Speaker
And like that's that's the argument that I'm trying to make. That's what I'm trying to bring to the National Party in these discussions is that, you know, all over the country right now, people are trying to be more like Texas Democrats.
00:16:06
Speaker
And it's not just about you slapping it on a bumper sticker or telling people you know how to fight. Start showing them. And you start showing them by coming to the table with these types of reforms. And I still don't see DC quite ready to do it.
00:16:20
Speaker
And so we're going to have to do it ourselves. Well, so it's interesting because Alex, we've discovered really likes the messaging aspect of ah this podcast and I really love process.
00:16:31
Speaker
So my question then is how as chair do you deliver on that? Like technically, because my perception is think Alex just said was that there's kind of, For better or worse, I don't want to say fiefdoms, but it just feels like we have got these concentrations of groups and clubs and really active people, but they're a little, you know, maybe decentralized is a perception that I have. And as the chair, is it your role or do you believe it's your role to sort of set the tone or the messaging or bringing the those groups together?
Building Grassroots Support Across Texas
00:17:01
Speaker
We have a very disjointed party and it comes from 31 years of failure that we're now in a position where different people in different areas consider themselves the king of their turf. And, you know, and we start having turf wars and I just don't think it's helpful.
00:17:17
Speaker
So I think the number one thing you do, and this is very intangible and not going to be satisfying to you, Kate, but it's the truth. The number one is setting an important tone. that we're on a team together, moving in the same direction with the same goal of winning elections.
00:17:30
Speaker
Whether you are a Henry Cuellar or Vicente Gonzalez Democrat, or you're a Jasmine Crockett Democrat, or maybe somewhere in between, ah we're all in the same boat right now, trying to win some races.
00:17:41
Speaker
And you do that by finding things that we all have in common. We're a coalition party with a lot of different people from a lot of different backgrounds, with a lot of different ah you know priorities. But what we all have in common is that we all pay bills.
00:17:54
Speaker
And that we're all, ah you know, coming from this perspective of trying to get one over. So to me, number one, you're setting a tone of everyone being on a team together. Number two, we're being out organized.
00:18:08
Speaker
This is a state where there's 9000 precincts. Forty five hundred of them have Democratic precinct chairs. So if you drew a map of Texas, put a line down the center of it, half of it doesn't have anybody working it.
00:18:22
Speaker
And in this state of 254 counties, we have 55 vacancies in our county chair spots. That's more than 20% of the state. Has no Democratic Party even operated.
00:18:33
Speaker
So um how you start is with the basics. Maybe start by showing up and building. and And that's not easy. It's tough. It's showing up to Dairy Queens where old men are drinking coffee and you might get berated a time or two, but they also might point you in the right direction to find it a person who can fill a county chair spot.
00:18:53
Speaker
ah it It means showing up in these mid-sized cities that are population centers in any other state. But because they're in Texas, we treat them like they're flyover country.
00:19:03
Speaker
Beaumont, Texas is bigger than Richmond, Virginia. Hmm. um Laredo, Texas is bigger than Richmond, Virginia. Lubbock is twice that size. Amarillo is twice that size.
00:19:15
Speaker
But we don't even step foot there and then act shocked whenever we get our asses kicked. So that's number two, Kate, is you you have to build this grassroots apparatus and make sure that those precinct chairs and county chairs know what they're supposed to be doing.
00:19:28
Speaker
You aren't just setting them up for failure. And then are you providing those resources for them or is there a place to go for those places? a Sorry to interrupt. I didn't. Yeah, well, we're we're in the process of pulling a bunch of that together. We can't U-turn the Titanic.
00:19:41
Speaker
I mean, this party, we're having to rebuild every single component of this party from the ground up. And we have been actively working. We've had eight different recruitment efforts out in West Texas and in the Permian Basin where we've been trying to recruit precinct chairs where a lot of those vacancies exist.
00:19:57
Speaker
ah While we're doing that, our organizing team of one person is working on putting together quarterly onboarding for all of our precinct chairs so that they're getting all the information they need on how to be successful.
00:20:08
Speaker
So it's all a work in progress. It doesn't happen overnight. ah But right now the priority is start filling those seats so that people are in motion, ready to receive it once it's kind of there kicking.
00:20:19
Speaker
And then the third item that I have that we're doing is we've got to start showing up, not just in communities to deliver a message, but also where people are receiving information. Did you know that the Texas Democratic Party has no Spanish language comms department? Did you know that the DNC has no Spanish language comms department?
00:20:38
Speaker
We're in a state where 30 to 35% of Texans speak Spanish at home. That doesn't mean they don't speak English, but it means that their preferred mode of communication is in Spanish. And we're not meeting people where they're consuming information. so So whether it is alternative sources of information like podcasts like this, or it's Spanish language or Vietnamese, we've got to create a messaging system.
00:21:02
Speaker
department and and system so that we're meeting people where they're at, not expecting them to come to reach us. Those to me are the three baseline points for us to start to build from. you you You're youre you're singing singing my song, Kendall, because you know as someone from Sherman, Texas, it meant the world to me in each of Better O'Rourke's campaigns, for example, that he would show up in my hometown because who who else was?
00:21:28
Speaker
ah Nobody. And for so long, such huge swaths of the state, whether it be geographic or by language or however, they're only receiving one side of the argument.
00:21:39
Speaker
um They're only getting presented one slate of candidates, whether it be yard signs or actual in-person events or even ads.
00:21:49
Speaker
I mean, ads are not going to save us. We have, to I think you're right. We have to get back down to the basics and build the party from the ground up and I think that's going to take showing up in these places that are being ignored.
00:22:02
Speaker
Yeah. And since I'm getting elected chair, I've done events in 52 counties so far, which may not sound like a lot, but I promise you, once you start getting on County 37, you realize how much it is.
00:22:14
Speaker
In addition to kind of juggling what we're doing, you know, i'm a volunteer here. I'm doing the best I can. on that Yeah. If you were to chair the chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party, you would have talked to every voter in the state. my last probably police But, you know, it's just ah it's just about rolling up our sleeves and getting it done. I'm going to fall short sometimes.
00:22:32
Speaker
ah That's just kind of the nature of the beast. But I think that grassroots in our state deserve a state chair that works as hard as they do. They deserve a party apparatus that thinks as boldly as they do and not just always playing it safe. When we play it as safe as we have, we end up saying absolutely nothing.
00:22:51
Speaker
And and it just it doesn't resonate with anyone because it's not content. What Republicans have learned to unlock is that when they firmly plant themselves on the right, Do they piss off people in the middle? Sure.
00:23:04
Speaker
But they get their base solid for them. Their base shows up every election because they trust them. And what we're learning is that those people in the middle, they don't really care that they're extremists.
00:23:17
Speaker
They'll side with them sometimes too. But who's fighting for our base? Who's showing up for them? Because when our party positions itself the center, our base doesn't trust them.
00:23:30
Speaker
And our base won't show up. There were 1.1 million Democrats who voted in 2020 who chose to stay home in 2024. A fifth of our voters, our people. And they'll say things like the Democrats don't fight hard enough. They negotiate away the things important to us. So I'm not saying that we kick people out of our party who disagree with us.
00:23:48
Speaker
What I am saying is that we firmly plant ourself with who we are. And that is the economic populist left. That is who the party is. And we need to stop being afraid of it. Well, can I um
Maintaining Consistency in Grassroots Efforts
00:24:00
Speaker
follow up on that? Because another perception and I've had, having now block walked and done a lot of grassroots stuff in the past like the past five or six years, which is, seems like the grassroots in the field, which is just knocking on doors, talking to people, right? Like, and registering voters has really ebbed and flowed with the top of the ticket and where that money is coming from.
00:24:20
Speaker
And so do you see that? Because you saw that with Beto, he really emphasized going to every county, talking everybody. I saw field offices. You saw signs everywhere. i went to many block walks with Beto.
00:24:33
Speaker
And then conversely, you saw that the Colin Allred campaign in the last election did not have that focus. I'm not asking you to say which one is right or wrong, but you know, what is the role of the party then to make sure that it's consistent every election year? Because what worries me is that in 2028, we don't have a top of the ticket, right? And that surprised me. I'm like, we don't have a governor, we don't have a lieutenant governor, we don't have an AG that year, and we don't have a Senate race.
00:24:59
Speaker
So like, what are we doing? And what... What will be the hopefully the role by then and now of the party here in the state? Well, let's talk about what the party does. I do feel like that's part of my role. People are so unfamiliar with the state party that a lot of them don't really even know what it does.
00:25:16
Speaker
So let me start by telling you what the party doesn't do, or at least it shouldn't in my mind. What the party doesn't do is pick our candidates. What the party doesn't do is put its thumb on the scale and play favorites.
00:25:29
Speaker
We are the chief primary administrators for the state, as unsexy as that is. So legally, my job is to call balls and strikes during the primary and let you, the voters of Texas, decide who you want to be the voice of our party.
00:25:43
Speaker
So... And sometimes I have people reach out to me and they'll say, man, what you need to do is you need to tell all these people to get out of this race. Or what you need to do is you need to recruit this person to run for Senate or whatever. And I'm sorry if that person wants to run. That's awesome.
00:25:57
Speaker
But my job is not to play favorites there. My job is to create a situation where you get to decide what the voice of our party is going to be. ah What the party does do is we administer that primary, we run voter protection, we also control and invest in and build the data infrastructure for the state.
00:26:18
Speaker
So every single Democrat in the state that's running, whether they're running for dog catcher or president, uses our data that we build. So whether or not we have the ability to invest in high quality data for those candidates, that lies on the state party.
00:26:33
Speaker
We create the messaging apparatus for the party and try to shape to the best of our ability what the messaging of the party will be. There are times where we may land on what we want it to be and the top of our ticket changes their mind.
00:26:46
Speaker
Well, you picked the top of the ticket, and so we would kind of adjust our messaging to what you picked. But right now, I'm an economic populist. I was elected to lead the party, and that's what I view as the messaging of the party at the moment. And I think that if we stay true to that, we really define ourselves around who we are and what we stand And then lastly, this is very unsexy, but really important, is we're a compliance mechanism.
00:27:10
Speaker
um You don't realize how important that is until you don't have it. we're the We are the the only entity that has the ability to pass money from state, federal, judicial, municipal levels.
00:27:21
Speaker
And that means that we can maximize fundraising potentials through joint fundraising agreements. And you have the ability to invest in us to be able to spread that. So those are all things that may not be what gets you out of bed in the morning.
00:27:35
Speaker
But if they didn't exist, I swear to you, you'd notice it. um And we have seen path over path where maybe our party hasn't been as strong in those components as we should So I'm trying to build a really strong infrastructure so that every one of our candidates across the state don't have to rebuild it from scratch.
00:27:54
Speaker
they can They can build upon something that's already there for them. And I know as a former candidate myself, I haven't felt like the party was there for me to build on. I had to build it from scratch.
00:28:04
Speaker
and There's a lot to be said about those candidates not having to reinvent the wheel. So Kendall, as you mentioned, you got elected as state party chair.
Kendall's Vision for the Texas Democratic Party
00:28:12
Speaker
Uh, it's not every day you see a millennial, uh, elected.
00:28:16
Speaker
I think, believe me, describe me if wrong, talking about North Carolina earlier, they've also got a young chair there as well. So hopefully this, this injection of energy is, is exactly what we need.
00:28:28
Speaker
Uh, this is thankless work and young people are always at the front of doing thankless work. Um, Not that we don't love our older ah ah participants, but tell tell us about that process, the getting a elected.
00:28:44
Speaker
You were elected on the first ballot, but there were a bunch of other candidates. What were you pushing? How did you overcome the odds? ah Just tell us about that race briefly, if you would. Yeah, so and I'll get into the weeds here here a bit. There are four young chairs in this country.
00:29:02
Speaker
There's North Carolina, as you said, North Carolina and Oregon are two Gen Z-ers and myself and the brand new chair in Wisconsin. He just got elected are the two millennials, um, to be considered young by the DNC standards. It's under 36. So, um, I'm scraping in there at 35. We're hanging on you and I, yeah. So I'm still a young chair.
00:29:23
Speaker
So, um, The way party structure works is at your local level, you have a county chair. That's the that's the top dog in your county. And they oversee what we call a CEC, a County Executive Committee that's composed of precinct chairs, which we talked about earlier.
00:29:40
Speaker
um Anybody can run to be a precinct chair as long as you sign a pledge to the Democratic Party. And then you can be on the CEC, which helps govern the party for your area. So if you're unhappy with the party or you think it needs to take a different direction or if you think it needs to be a louder direction, all you got to do is be a precinct chair and you can be on the CEC governing it.
00:29:58
Speaker
And on the state level or on the national level that you're familiar with, you have the national DNC chair, Ken Martin and the DNC, the ominous DNC everyone talks about. ah They're all elected on state levels and they all make their way to the DNC.
00:30:10
Speaker
So that's the national and the county level. Well, in the middle of that is the state level. And that's where you have the state chair, the person who runs the party for the state. That's me now. um And they are overseen by a body called the SDEC, the State Democratic Executive Committee.
00:30:26
Speaker
Those people are elected at convention. There's two two representatives from every congressional district. And then there's two representatives from each constituency caucuses. So like the black Democrats, young Democrats, Hispanic Democrats, Democrats with disabilities, you see where I'm going here. So there's 120 people on that governing body for the party.
00:30:45
Speaker
So our former chairman, Gilberto Hinojosa, resigned after this last election. He'd been in that position for 13 years. And so for the first time in a very long time, there was a jockey for who was going to lead the party.
00:30:58
Speaker
And the state Democratic executive committee got to pick who that person would be to finish this term. And then there will be an election for the full term at the next convention in Corpus Christi in June of 2026, where I'll be running and I'm sure some others will be.
00:31:13
Speaker
I think I just broke news on your podcast. I'll be running for reelection. yeah So maybe we'll be there. I hope to be there. I would love to have you there, especially if you're voting for me. If you're not, then stay home. Just kidding. So in that process, that means that there were 120 people that we had to to make our pitch to of what did where did we see the party going? What did we see the success being?
00:31:37
Speaker
And there were eight of us running, um all very nice people. But you'll see in the forums, very different styles and very different visions for the party because the party is very different. It's a very diverse party.
00:31:50
Speaker
um You saw some folks kind of from existing establishment apparatus. You had people from just completely outside of the party. I kind of straddled this role of being a grassroots activist for over 20 years.
00:32:04
Speaker
ah But also being kind of on the outside where the establishment class and the people in Austin have never really liked my perspective. And so they've always kind of shut me out of it.
00:32:15
Speaker
And so, you know I was kind of a long shot when you first got in. It was like, wow, these party insiders on the SDEC would never elect this farm kid from East Texas who's constantly ranting and raving about how the party has to rebuild from the ground up.
00:32:29
Speaker
But after this election, I think most people got it, that the party just needed to learn tough lesson. And so that is what ah what i what happened.
00:32:42
Speaker
They came over. I won on the first ballot round. in an eight-way race, got a majority of the vote. And so we now have a young chair that's talking about rebuilding things, rethinking the way things have been done.
00:32:54
Speaker
That doesn't mean we're going to burn the whole thing to the ground, okay? There's some things that the party has done that has been great. I'd say primary administration. They've been really good at administering a primary.
00:33:05
Speaker
That doesn't sound really great, but if you're in a state that's not good at it, ooh, buddy, do you realize how important it is? They've been really good on voting protection and they've been pretty good on the data front. I think we have some room for improvement, but they've been good there.
00:33:18
Speaker
But where they haven't been good is this grassroots space that I tend to occupy. They haven't been good in the messaging space. And those are areas that I want to see us just rebuild and completely rethink.
00:33:29
Speaker
So we can't be afraid to do that. and And sometimes in the last five months, my suggestions have made some people uncomfortable. I know that. But I just don't see us having victory doing things the way we've always done them.
00:33:44
Speaker
And if that means that I lose at a convention in June of 2026, well, then so be it. I didn't get elected chair so that I could get reelected chair. I got elected chair to rethink the way that we're operating as Democrats, and I'm going to make the most of the year I got.
00:33:59
Speaker
and hope that I have the opportunity to continue doing it. Maybe we'll find success, or maybe the people of Texas will decide that, ah you know, I did a little bit too much. That's fine. That's their prerogative. But I want to be the guy that systematically rethought the way that Democrats operated in this state to change this trajectory of failure that we've seen.
Critique of Texas Republican Party Leadership
00:34:20
Speaker
Do you think the Republican counterpart the Texas Republican Party is doing anything especially well? Or do you think they're kind of just coasting on the fact that we haven't had our shit together?
00:34:31
Speaker
They've been coasting on the fact that we haven't had our shit together. The the Republican chair is a clown. um I don't know if you're familiar with Abraham George, but I mean, he's he's nuttier than squirrel shit.
00:34:42
Speaker
um And and frankly, their party is about as weak as ours. They are only able to survive because they have gigantic donors that fund into their top tier candidates.
00:34:54
Speaker
And so people like Greg Abbott, Dan Patrick, Ken Paxton, ah John Korn, and Ted Cruz have just kept them floating with just dismal leadership. And frankly, their SDEC is just as nutty or their SREC.
00:35:09
Speaker
You know, they just have passed, passed a, um, uh, referendum to keep anybody off the ballot in a Republican primary who doesn't agree with 100% of their platform, which constitutionally you can't do that, it will never hold up in court.
00:35:25
Speaker
but they're not focusing on the things important either, which means we have an opportunity, guys. yeah Just get our shit together. There's one other thing they did recently I want you to talk about. And then I'll let Kate ask ask the next question.
00:35:36
Speaker
So I saw, i volunteer with an organization called Veterans for All Voters. And it's aimed at increasing participation across the board. but Forget Republican, Democrat, Independent.
00:35:47
Speaker
Just getting more people participating and getting people more ability to influence elections, right? Kind of the antithesis of gerrymandering. where ah politicians are picking their voters instead of the other way around.
00:35:59
Speaker
Veterans for All Voters is trying to just end that practice and and do democracy reforms like ring choice voting and and cleaning up the districts and those kinds of things, right? Very nonpartisan, just kind common sense stuff.
00:36:10
Speaker
And what we have noticed is that the Texas Republican Party has moved to disallow open primaries. That... In Texas, for those who don't know, um you don't have to be a member of a party, you have to sign some pledge like you do to become a precinct chair.
00:36:27
Speaker
If you want to vote in the Democratic primary, get to vote in the Democratic primary, right? As long as you're a voter. um Republicans are shutting that down. They're taking steps to do that so that unless you are ah die in the world, registered, card carrying Republican, you cannot vote in the Republican primary. And it's very concerning because Texas ah is home to the largest number of veterans in the country.
00:36:51
Speaker
And by and large, over 50 percent or thereabouts of veterans identifies independents. Yeah. So especially when we have the longest losing statewide streak in the country, I mean, if you're a veteran and you and you want to have an impact on the statewide race, or if you're a veteran, you want to have an impact um in your local community where maybe all of your elected officials are Republican and you want to have a voice in that primary, they're saying you can't, you can't show up.
00:37:15
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I don't make a habit of chasing Republicans around to talk about whatever dumb shit they're thinking about that day. And that tends to be one of those items. What I will say on it is that, um,
00:37:27
Speaker
If Republicans wanna close their primary off, I guess they can do that. I'm gonna fight to make sure that they don't get state funding. You know, we these are publicly funded primaries. We facilitate it and run it. So I'm the chief primary administrator for the Democrats.
00:37:44
Speaker
Abraham's the chief ah primary administrator for the Republicans. And if you want to close your primary out so that make it harder for the public to participate in it, then the public shouldn't fund it. You should have to fund it out of your party's pockets.
00:37:56
Speaker
If it's going to be open, then I can see a reason for the government to fund it. You know, they're going to administer and operate the way they are. We're going to keep our party open. We're going to keep our party um as as open as we can to allow people to participate in the process because we're a party of people, not a party of insiders.
00:38:13
Speaker
There are times where we have slipped backwards to become a party of insiders. And I've been the guy always trying to fight to stop that from happening. And so I'll continue to be on the front lines on that fight to keep our primaries open.
00:38:27
Speaker
So it's interesting because I think if you were an outsider looking in you might think that this is sort of a David and Goliath story that we're up against this big bad party with so many resources.
Democrats as Underdogs: Potential and Growth
00:38:38
Speaker
But it feels like we're more of a growth story than that. Like this isn't really a Goliath that it's more of like, and I think I'm a millennial like all of y'all,
00:38:46
Speaker
a little bit older, but I think of it like the one of those 90s sports movies where you've got a team who's always been winning and they like never know how to not to win, but they don't have the heart anymore.
00:38:57
Speaker
And then you've got the underdog who just needs a little bit more infrastructure. Rudy, Rudy. rudy ducks and rudy i like both of those movies we are going to flying v our way out of this y'all like we are going to do that um a little bit more like we're to smarter we're going to do harder we're going to have the heart and we got the talent and going have the leadership we're going to like win our way out of this so well hell no real quick I apologize. was completely off topic. But do you all remember and that in the first Mighty Ducks, Coach Bombay was a lawyer that had to coach the team because of like a DUI or something? Yes.
00:39:35
Speaker
yeah but You know, it's funny you actually bring up those movies because that's kind of how the Democratic Party has been operating. A lot like the people in Air Bud who always look and say, dogs can't play basketball. That's but that's what the Democratic Party has been doing the whole time Donald Trump's been governing.
00:39:51
Speaker
Just looking at the government, you can't do that. yeah that That's not the rule. Yeah. I mean, look, you're you're right for sure about the talent piece. And I think the whole country saw that during this quorum break where we had our elected officials on display for the whole country to see.
00:40:08
Speaker
And everybody was saying, holy cow, take a look at these Texas Democrats. um Our bench is very deep. and Because we are a we are the second largest Democratic party in the country.
00:40:19
Speaker
People forget that. We delivered the second largest number of votes for Kamala Harris in the last election. We delivered the second largest number of votes for Joe Biden in the 2020 election. we are that We are a large party. We just haven't been winning statewide.
00:40:33
Speaker
And there's a couple of reasons for that. The number one reason for that is turnout. It's not registration. OK, we've done pretty good job registering people, but not following up to make sure that they show up after they're registered.
00:40:46
Speaker
There are precincts that I have. looked I mean, I've looked at precinct by precinct for the state. Talk about a spreadsheet. OK.
Addressing Low Voter Turnout in Democratic Precincts
00:40:54
Speaker
But there are precincts in this state that had 13% turnout in a presidential election.
00:41:02
Speaker
Okay. That is us. That's on us. Did you, I mean, every one of those blue precincts, they're blue. Every one of those 13% precincts are our people that they don't want to show up and vote. So the reason we've been losing is we're not giving our people something to rally on and something to be behind.
00:41:21
Speaker
And so that is something I stand really firm in is the party staking its claim on the left, staking its claim on economic populism. so that you know that if you show up and vote for a Democrat, that is a person that will take on whatever banker, whatever billionaire, whatever bootlicking bastard they have to, to make sure they I get one, to make sure I get my fair shot, because I'm tired of being at the bottom groveling for crumbs.
00:41:47
Speaker
And when we become that party for those people, yeah folks are going to show up. I know they are. But it's only if we're going to throw out the old playbook of just a robot, everyone deserves a fair shot.
00:41:59
Speaker
Everyone deserves a fair shot. I mean, that's what we've been as a party, and it's not inspiring, and it's not something that's going to get someone cranking. If our candidates want to work on persuasion and try to make themselves more palatable, more power to them, that's their strategy and their decision to make.
00:42:16
Speaker
But as Mr. Democrat for the state of Texas, my job is to make sure Democrats show up to vote. and I'll be damned if I'm going to sacrifice what is important to Democrats for some, you know, milquetoast moderate in the middle.
00:42:28
Speaker
That's not my job. My job is to make Democrats happy. I am the only elected official ah and statewide in Texas as a Democrat. And what makes me different than our legislators is I represent zero Republicans.
00:42:42
Speaker
They, even in the most Democratic district, might have 20%, 30% of their district being I represent no Republicans. I give no shits what a Republican thinks about what we are building in our party and about what we stand for.
00:42:57
Speaker
And if that's the position I have, then it's time to act like it and stop trying to curry ourselves to the center. Well, you gave us some goals that y'all are trying to accomplish, and I think it would be lovely and it'd be great for our listeners to check in with y'all in six months and obviously in a year when our general election is, and i we would love to do that. um But I think our listeners, if they're like me, are feeling a little helpless.
00:43:20
Speaker
And I was like, I'm going to podcast ah to help my feelings about this. What can people do at home to help you accomplish this? the goals that you're trying to accomplish. Yeah. I'm going to, I'm going to give you three things you can do. Number one, you can sign up to be a precinct chair when fascism is knocking at the door. Now is not the time for your imposter syndrome.
00:43:39
Speaker
So check that shit and sign up to be a part of this resistance. Uh, You don't have to know everything about everything to do it. I was a precinct chair when I was 18. You're going to be fine.
00:43:50
Speaker
Okay. Sign up and fill these spots and work your local communities. It starts local. And when we have people doing that work on the local level, we will start working our way up to having success. There are people focused.
00:44:04
Speaker
Sign up to be precinct chair if you already have one. then reach out to your precinct chair and ask what you can do to be helpful. And maybe what you can do to be helpful is just let them know the people you know in the neighborhood. But it starts granular in your community at the precinct chair level. So start there, number one. Number two, you can sign up to be a monthly sustaining contributor to the party. I know everyone is tired of politicians and party people asking for money, but it's my job, okay?
00:44:28
Speaker
Also, out of 6 million people that voted for Joe Biden in 2020, I only had 1,500 people in the state of Texas giving monthly to this party when I became children.
00:44:40
Speaker
And so don't be surprised. Yeah. Pause on that because a monthly reoccurring donation is better than just one big donation, in my opinion, because It's predictable and it means that you can use that money ah but going forward. like You know that's coming in. i just want to put a plug that in for that for you because I don't think before I ran for office, I knew that.
00:45:02
Speaker
And that helps you fund salaries. That helps you like not just fund one big event. It helps you like keep going. right only It helps me like keep a staff in place. If I wanted to build a Spanish language comms department, I don't have to worry about whether I'm going to be able to make payroll.
00:45:16
Speaker
that's That's how important it is. If just 2% of people who voted for Joe Biden in 2020, 2% of people. who If people who work for a living give a little bit, you can fund the people who can work for the living.
00:45:29
Speaker
ah for the party. Yeah. and if If just 2% of people in this state gave $10 a month, 2% of people who voted for Joe Biden gave 10 bucks a month, the state party would be bringing in $1.2 million dollars a month.
Pride in Democratic Achievements and Progress
00:45:41
Speaker
That's a game changer for us as a party. But I know that I have to earn that from people. they They haven't had trust in the party in the past. So if you're not there yet, I get it. I'm looking forward to earning it from you. And I'm going to work my ass off to get there.
00:45:54
Speaker
The third thing that you can do to be helpful may feel a little less tangible, but I promise you it's just as important. And that is to be a loud, proud Democrat. Stop playing this game where we're ashamed of who we are or afraid to tell people where we're at.
00:46:09
Speaker
We are a party that has delivered every major accomplishment over the last hundred years for this country. I think of things like the New Deal, where you know electricity and Social Security were brought to people in rural communities who didn't have it before.
00:46:24
Speaker
where people in rural communities started buying lamps and light bulbs and dishwashers. It rebounded the economy from the Great Depression, saved the world during World War II. That was Democrats.
00:46:35
Speaker
Think of things like the Great Society, Medicare, Medicaid, expansions of Social Security. It reduced poverty in this by 75%. Those were big, bold, progressive ideas brought to you by Democrats.
00:46:49
Speaker
I think of putting a man on the goddamn moon. When everyone said it was impossible, it was a farce. It was something you only read about in kids' books. Democrats knew that if we invested in science and in technology, we could do the impossible.
00:47:06
Speaker
And we put a man on the motherfucking moon. I'm going to make you have to rate your your podcast as- Heavy or X-rated. That's what it is. We put a man on the moon. And fun fact, we were the party that gave this country the last balanced budget that it's ever seen.
00:47:21
Speaker
But it wasn't just Democrats who did that. It was Texas Democrats who did all those things. Sam Rayburn gave us the New Deal. Lyndon Johnson gave us the Great Society. Houston scientists put a man on the moon. Lloyd Benson balanced the budget.
00:47:34
Speaker
When Texas Democrats have our shit together, we do great things for this country. But when Texas Democrats don't, the whole party's out of whack. They're counting on us to come to the table with big, brash, bold ideas to fix the country, just like they are right now during this quorum break.
00:47:53
Speaker
The whole world is counting on us to get this one right. Don't think it escapes me at any point. It's on all of us to meet this moment. And if we don't, the whole world's in trouble. And and so so be proud of who you are and who what it means to be a Texas Democrat.
00:48:08
Speaker
We set the tone. for what this country does and what this party does to set it on track. and And that's a very tangible thing to me, is to be vocal to the people you know in your life about how important it is that we stand firm and and come to the table for working class people.
00:48:25
Speaker
Kendall, I know you've got to run, but I just want to say I love that answer. And what I love most about it is it's framed in what we're for and who we are and not who we're not. yeah And we're not saying we aren't the Republicans.
00:48:38
Speaker
So much of what I see online when people are trying to be loud and proud Democrats is, look at how absurd the Republicans are. Look how bad that is. But they're not putting forth that positive vision that you just laid out. And I think that's such an important thing that's missing from the conversation. So bringing get more people doing that. I think we're going to be in a better shape. But also, I think we'll be far less likely to alienate people and get people to understand what the value proposition is and being part of this movement.
00:49:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, I know we're trying to wrap up, but I mean, if you look at the polling for people like Zoran Mamdani, probably the most progressive Democrat running in the country. um He has 30 percent approval amongst conservatives right now.
00:49:16
Speaker
and And it's because he's running on something. Their lives are hard. They need help. They need somebody that's going to solve their problems. That's the purpose of government. And he's doing that.
00:49:26
Speaker
And so, you know, is he going to get all of them? Is he going to get most of them? Probably not. But if you're pulling 30% of the conservative vote as a Democrat, Game over in places like Texas, right? I mean, it's all about standing for something. And thank you guys for putting your podcast together and start trying to meet a new group of people.
00:49:44
Speaker
Grateful for y'all's services throughout your career, not just to the party, but to the country. And anything that we as a party can do to be helpful in this effort, we're all on board, whatever we can do. ah Two final questions. Where can people find you if you are putting out content or ideas for the party? And then what you got going on outside of politics?
00:50:04
Speaker
Oh, gosh. What's outside of politics? So people can find me on all the social medias at Kendall Scudder. K-E-N-D-A-L-L-S-C-U-D-D-E-R. I don't always post a lot. I'm just kind of this curmudgeon-y guy who really hates social media.
00:50:18
Speaker
But you'll see me on it from time to time. I'm trying to do better. Um, that's where you can find me on all the socials at that. And what I do outside of politics right now is I'm, I'm trying to my best to help my wife raise this baby. We have baby Lyndon was born five weeks ago and, um, we're trying, trying to make this world better for him as best we can. Um, it involves, I'm a volunteer doing 18 to 20 hours a day. And it just, I don't have a lot outside of this these days. Um, my poor wife, it just deals with my tirades excessively.
00:50:50
Speaker
ah But that's that's the best I can do these days is just try to do the best I can to show up for that kid. Well, congratulations again, Papa. And, you know, we we look forward to to continuing to work with you to to make Texas a better place for everybody. Thank you so much.
00:51:05
Speaker
Thanks, y'all. Appreciate you missing Texas.
00:51:10
Speaker
We're on it. You can follow us on all socials at Mission Texas Podcast. Email us at missiontexaspodcast at gmail.com. This episode is edited by Juan Jose Flores. Our music bumper is by Adam Pickerel, and our cover art is by Tino So.