If the road to blue goes through Black, then I have one question: where is the investment? I learned that politics is called political science. Before I could raise campaign money, I thought if I went to enough churches, civic clubs, super neighborhoods and Democratic events, people would meet me, like me and vote for me. That was naive. Once I could afford polling and voter data, I learned who loved me, who hated me and who might support me. If somebody hates me, I am not spending money reminding them there is an election so they can vote against me. It costs money to identify your voters, understand what moves them and get them to the polls. I learned that on Election Day. My campaign manager wanted me to authorize more than $60,000 for turnout. I said no. “They love me. Th ey’ll vote.” By 11 a.m., many had not. By then, the cost had dropped into the $40,000s because we had lost three hours. I signed the check.
That was for one House district, for part of one day. Th at experience taught me something campaigns forget: Black turnout cannot be an emergency expenditure. It has to be an early investment. Too often, Democratic campaigns spend heavily on consultants and conventional media. Black communities are treated as dependable. Then turnout numbers come in and everybody starts screaming, “Where are the Black voters?” Well, where were you? When $25 million was publicly pledged for Black voter outreach across Texas, I paid attention. Where is it? Trusted Democratic organizations in Harris County have not received enough from statewide candidates to fund the kind of field operation it takes to move Black voters. I just learned that Houston Black American Democrats — HBAD — received $5,000. Five thousand dollars out of $25 million is 0.02%. That is not field investment.
Take the top 25 highestturnout Black polling locations in Harris County. Put two paid poll workers at each location, pay them $15 an hour, feed them, and hire three field managers. Using a conservative 12-day estimate, that alone is about $138,600 — before mail, slate cards, signs, radio, newspaper ads, transportation or voter data. That $138,600 is only about 0.55% of $25 million. A little over one-half of one percent to staff 25 Black polling locations in Harris County — Texas’s largest county and home to the state’s largest Black population. That is minuscule. That makes not a lick of sense to me. That defies logic. That defies Black logic. That defies political science. And since you are reading this in African American News & Issues, let me say this plainly: why am I not seeing top-of-ticket Democratic advertising in this newspaper? This statewide Black newspaper is free and available in H-E-Bs, restaurants, churches and Black businesses. People buy groceries every week. They walk by, pick up the paper and take it home. That is one of the biggest bangs for the buck in Black political communication. Yet I have not seen the advertising here that I would expect from campaigns saying Black turnout is essential. Houston, we have a
