Texas looms large as Super Tuesday bonanza for Democrats

 Bernie Sanders packed a rodeo arena in Dallas. Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $13.5 million on television s around Houston alone. And neir Joe Biden r Elizabeth Warren can afford big losses.

For a change, Texas matters in picking a presidential minee.

As more than a dozen states go to polls next week, Texas is looming as both a major prize and a daunting proposition for many of Democrats vying to take on President Donald Trump. red state with growing blue streak is too big to igre, especially for a party that sees it as a future game-changer in presidential and congressional politics. But it's also too big to win without a serious investment of time and cash. That's left candidates with biggest bank accounts with a clear vant — and many ors struggling to find ways to make a dent.

“It's t a matter of will. It's a matter of having means," said Matt Angle, a longtime Democratic strategist in Texas. “Texas is a very, very expensive state to compete in.”

To be sure, California remains largest haul of Super Tuesday states, awarding 416 pledged delegates to Texas' 228. Taken toger, two states will award more delegates than rest of Super Tuesday states combined — giving m unusual influence over party's choice.

Like ir Californian counterparts, Texas Democrats have long grumbled that ir presidential candidates show up only to raise money. Texans d to that complaint that party's top candidates rarely bor to hunt for votes in such a deep-red state. ir party hasn't won a statewide office since 1994, nation's longest political losing streak, despite dominating largest cities since first flipping Dallas in 2006.

By 2018, though, Democrats swept every top office on ballot in Harris County, home to Houston and more people than states of Iowa and New Hampshire — which led off presidential primary — combined. party w has a chance to take control of Texas House in vember and is vying to pick up four congressional seats being vacated by retiring Republicans. Some Democrats believe state's 38 electoral votes — and a new path to White House — aren't too far out of reach.

state party has tried to build on its momentum by commanding more attention from 2020 field. But efforts to organize a forum of presidential candidates fizzled because it was difficult to get those running to commit while ir attention was on Iowa and New Hampshire, said Gilberto Hijosa, chairman of Texas Democratic Party. He said episode renewed his belief that Democratic National Committee should change order of early primaries.

candidates are coming w — with little time to spare. Sanders barnstormed across state last weekend, drawing thousands to a rally in liberal Austin. Bloomberg is returning to Houston on Thursday, Pete Buttigieg, ex-mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will be in Dallas and Warren, a Massachusetts senator, is hitting San Antonio with its former mayor, Julián Castro, hoping former presidential rival can give her flagging campaign a boost in his hometown.

Or than fundraisers and a September debate in Houston, Biden, former vice president whose fundraising has been hurt by his poor showing in early states, has campaigned little in state. same goes for Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, though she anunced Monday that at least some of a new $4.2 million TV buy will be spent in Texas.

"It's just a new phemena for Texas," Hijosa said. “I see a Bernie campaign every day. And I never watch TV."

During his last run for president, in 2016, Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, was trounced here, losing 3 to 1 to Hillary Clinton in Democratic primary.

But suddenly Sanders, who has shot to front of pack, sees Texas as winnable. Brooklyn-born Vermonter channeled his inner cowboy at a rally in Dallas on Sunday, confessing he'd never been to a rodeo in his life but saying he'd shoveled plenty of cow droppings in Washington as a senator. While visiting San Antonio, he spoke at a dance hall featuring a mechanical bull and was introduced by band Piñata Protest, which modified lyrics of 1990s hit “Hey Baby, Que Paso?” — kwn as city's ufficial national anm — to “Hey Bernie, Que Paso?”

Texas is home to 5.6 million Hispanics eligible to vote in 2020 election, according to Pew Research Center, second in nation behind only California's 7.9 million. But both states are about equal in having Hispanics make up roughly 30% of ir eligible voters. After struggling to win over mirity voters in 2016, Sanders has me a deliberate push to appeal to Hispanics this cycle. effort appeared to pay off in Neva, which he won handily.

Warren, who has prided herself on building a national organization faster than any or presidential candidate, opened her first Texas field office last winter and w has four, featuring 60-plus staffers. She's spending nearly $400,000 in television s that have aired in six TV markets statewide.

That's thing compared to Bloomberg, who has spent more than $100 million on airwaves combined in Texas and California. His operation in Texas is a juggernaut that has zeroed in on big cities, including Houston, where billionaire has focused on outreach to black voters and again apologized this month for controversial “stop-and-frisk” police strategy he embraced as New York mayor.

“I think that re are people who could be Trump-Bernie voters, potentially, from one cycle to next," said Hear Kennedy, 32, who lives outside Austin and is backing Warren. "I don't kw. It's just too hard for me to see into future what Texans are going to do. We're so independent-minded that you never kw.”