Team,

It was a tough weekend in Texas. Our state is grieving once again after another mass shooting took the lives of nine people in Allen. And in Brownsville, the community is reeling after a man drove through a crowd in front of a migrant shelter, killing eight.

These tragedies are a reminder that failed leadership in this state, coupled with rising far-right extremism, are making our state less safe. It’s also a reminder that the work to unseat that leadership and tackle these issues has never been more important. 

That’s why we wanted to write to you about the other news from this weekend—the May ballot elections. 

Ground Game Texas worked with local partner organizations on three major ballot initiatives: in San Antonio, El Paso, and Harker Heights. Unfortunately in San Antonio and El Paso, we came up short—and while we’re ahead in Harker Heights, the results are not yet final. But we wanted to take time to explain why and where we go from here. 

In each of these campaigns we faced tremendous odds. We were sued by well-financed anti-abortion groups. Republican lawmakers like Greg Abbott and Ken Paxton tried to block us in the courts. And we fought back against millions in misinformation and lies about what our initiatives would do.

But Ground Game Texas has always been about affecting change from the ground up. Through these initiatives, we were able to register new voters, engage hundreds of thousands of Texans at the doors and over the phones, and mobilize thousands to get involved in an off-year election for the first time. That’s an unprecedented success story.

We’ve learned some very important lessons along the way that are going to help us succeed moving forward. We’re going to continue to push bold, popular, progressive policies across our state to help energize and mobilize the electorate. 

If we’re going to fip Texas once-and-for-all, we can’t sit out these races—and Ground Game didn’t. Help us continue our work and fight for progressive change in Texas—chip in $10, $20, or $30 to support our work. 

Thank you so much for your continued support. Thanks to you, our state has moved closer, not further, to bringing progressive change to Texas.

Best wishes,

Julie Oliver and Mike Siegel
Co-Founders, Ground Game Texas

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