Who Is Out There?

I am not the only one to make the argument that we don't really know what the partisan demographics currently are in Texas.

Because the population has grown so much in Texas over the last 8 years or so and, before this year, there was a dearth of earth-moving Democratic excitement to shake out the party affiliations of all the new residents, we did not really have a way of knowing whether Texas was actually still very Republican, or heavily trending Democratic more than we could observe in places like Dallas and Harris counties.

That population growth continues: Williamson, Hays, and Travis all made the US Census Bureau list of America's 100 Fastest Growing Counties.

We know the urban areas have been growing at a steady clip and, by all reports, demographic shifts and the unmasking of the results of Republican governance are combining to swing areas we may have thought unswingable. 2008 stands to be a very interesting election year.