VOA常速英语:德州不再是特朗普的必赢之地

Enjoy the rides, check out animals and eat fried food. The Texas State Fair is a place for everyone, whatever their political leanings. “I think you’re always just going to assume that Texas is all red. It’s the same reason they assume that we all have cows. We all ride horses. We walk around in cowboy hat.” Texas remains a Republican stronghold, but the recent opinion surveys show only forty five percent of registered voters approve of President Trump. “I don’t like how he treats people, just don’t. I just think he needs to be modeling that from the top down and I don’t see that happening.” The same poll shows forty eight percent would not vote for Trump in 2020. Once solidly red, now Texas may be a realistic target for Democrats, even though the president’s policies on the economy and immigration remain popular here. The changing demographics including the increasing number of minorities and the trend of suburban women voting Democrat may make it difficult for Republicans to win especially in state elections.

 “It’s a tighter game, but it’s not turning blue.” Republicans say the stakes are high. “We’ve got a real ballgame this time. We need everybody to show up.” In 2016, Trump won Texas by nine points, down from Mitt Romney’s 16-point margin from just four years earlier. By 2018, incumbent Republican Ted Cruz only narrowly defeated newcomer Democrat Beto O’Rourke in the state Senate race. With strong rural Republican support, most analysts predict that it’s too early to call Texas a swing state. “Texas is a growing old state, and it’s growing in the cities, and I think with the growth in the cities, a lot of the growth is Democratic voters.” Democrats in Texas welcomed the demographic shift and aim to build on their growth by wooing independence. “Our people are just not happy with the things that Trump has done and these are people that actually voted for Trump in the last election.” After he heard president Trump’s remarks about the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville Virginia that turned violent. “So when Donald Trump made that comment, they’re good people marching on both sides, I went ballistics, I turned in my Republican membership card.”
Recent polling in Texas shows Trump trailing a number of Democratic presidential candidates. “Donald Trump is not gonna lose Texas, I can tell you that, and Texas is not blue.” Most analysists support the president’s claim at this point, but they say a lot can happen in a year particularly with an ongoing impeachment inquiry.