Could a Democratic presidential candidate win Texas for the first time since Jimmy Carter in 1976?

Two of the Young Democrat co-presidents discuss the influence of blue voices in a red state,

The Shield: Can you explain what turning Texas Blue is?

Sarah Brownson: In the simplest terms, it basically means turning Texas into a Democratic state, or a swing state. Battleground Texas [a Democratic grassroots voter registration initiative] said, or at least said when it was more relevant, [that the key issue was] to get Texas minority voters to vote because they hadn’t had very large voter turnout in the past.

TS: How do you think Battleground Texas worked out?

SB: Not very well. It’s kind of a process. I think the thing that would be different about this election is that you have to have a candidate that’s so repulsive especially to minority voters that would make the challenge of leaving your kids at home, or going to work to vote worth it.

TS: What did you think about the first recent debate ?

SB: I thought she did pretty well.

Grace Bonilla: Yeah, Me too. I think she stood her ground, but I also wish they talked about policy more.

SB: Yeah! I think that [Trump] had a lot more speaking time so the moderator was a little frustrated.

GB: Lester Holt really needed to step it up.

SB: I also think that the more [Trump] goes on, the worse he makes himself sound, so I don’t think it was that bad, but also it might be a bit unfair. Especially at the very end when they were talking about the things he says about women, she just dragged him. I think he was really doing poorly in the end.

GB: I think you could really tell that she had put real thought and a lot of preparation into the debate because everything she said was so well thought out in the times that she could talk, which weren’t very many.

TS: Did you have a favorite part or quote from the debate?

GB: My favorite part was when she was talking about how people who don’t pay income taxes for everything and then Hillary said, “ He owes you.”

SB: I also liked the part where he said that she didn’t have a tax plan because she has a plan for everything. If anything, people don’t like her because she has too many plans, and it annoys people. Then she said that it was all written in her book and that everyone should go buy it.

TS: Do you think that it changed any significant amount of voters’ minds about a candidate?

GB: If I’m going to be completely honest, I don’t think it changed a lot of people’s minds, but I think it made Donald Trump look worse, so maybe it changed some undecided voters’ minds.

SB: I don’t think it changed the minds of any people who were Trump supporters from the beginning, but I think for conservatives, who don’t like Hillary or Trump, maybe it helped them?

TS: Do you think that any conservatives don’t want to admit that they would vote for Hillary, but secretly they will?

SB: I think that both of the Bushes will secretly or publicly announce that they are voting for Hillary.

GB: I read somewhere in an article that all four of our living presidents will all vote for Hillary.

SB: Wow! I think that most career politicians would vote for Hillary because that would make their lives a lot easier. They probably want to elect someone that they can work with, and they know her.

TS: Can you explain about the Young Democrats Club at McCallum?

GB: Well in our friend group it started out with me, Sarah and Hanan. We would always talk about the election all the time, and we thought that it would be really helpful and beneficial for anyone who was interested to have a group that was in a scheduled place. That way we could just talk and clear the air on a bunch of issues that were arising in the election and that got really confusing. Politics can just get so confusing and sometimes you just need to have someone sit you down and explain what’s going on.

SB: This year we have been pretty busy because we have been registering voters for the actual election … so we have been pretty busy. We all watch the debate together though. It was pretty nice though because last year every week we would pick a topic, and then after every week I always felt like I learned a lot about something that I didn’t know.

TS: Have you ever had more conservative students come to Young Democrats Club?

SB: Everyone that has been in Young Democrats has been Democratic.

GB: The only real issues we have had are people who were diehard Bernie fans versus people who are diehard Hillary fans.

SB: Diehard Hillary wasn’t that common.

GB: I wouldn’t even really say it was an issue just more of a disagreement because even though everyone was still a Democrat, it still causes a lot of differences than I had really thought there were going to be.

SB: It wasn’t really differences on ideology, it was just differences on what people thought was realistic.

GB: It also wasn’t bad differences, it just opened the doors for more discussion and learning.