How Rick Perry Could Turn Texas Blue

Ron Brownstein
says Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s (R) decision not to expand Medicaid (unlike
other GOP governors) could be what ultimately hands Texas to the Democrats.

“Rejecting the
federal money might not pose an immediate political threat to Texas
Republicans, whose coalition revolves around white voters responsive to
small-government arguments. But renouncing the money represents an
enormous gamble for Republicans with the growing Hispanic community,
which is expected to approach one-third of the state’s eligible voters
in 2016. Hispanics would benefit most from expansion because they
constitute 60 percent of the state’s uninsured. A jaw-dropping 3.6
million Texas Hispanics lack insurance.”

He concludes: “In
1994, California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson mobilized his base by
promoting Proposition 187, a ballot initiative to deny services to
illegal immigrants. He won reelection that year–and then lost the war as
Hispanics stampeded from the GOP and helped turn the state lastingly
Democratic.”