Leaders gearing up for important mid-term election
By McGlauthon Fleming IV
Texas Metro News
Intern
Chair Kardal Coleman Texas State Rep. James Talarico
Texas Democrats will meet this week for their annual state convention in Corpus Christi.
Party officials’ focus, they say, is restructuring and strategizing for the future, including the 2026 election season.
The party convenes June 25-27, less than two weeks after the state Republican convention ended their gathering June 13.
Among Democrats’ significant decisions is who will shape the party’s vision. An election will take place to determine Texas Democratic Party leadership.
“So every person that has registered to be a delegate and that’s a voting member can vote for the officers of the state party, everything from treasurer, secretary, chair, and vice chair, so we should have, I believe, roughly three to four thousand delegates attending this convention,” Dallas County Democratic Party Chair, Kardal Coleman said.
There are 21 state officer candidates. Eighteen have introduced themselves by video introductions on the TDC website. Elections will be held virtually with the winners announced on Saturday.
“Party platform is voted on, so you have those things in a committee, and then that committee will bring them to the entire body, or to the convention floor, for it to be voted up or down, and those things will be voted on by the entire convention,” Coleman said.
Candidates have emerged from an array of backgrounds and share myriad focuses for the party, incumbent state party chair Kendall Scudder said. Scudder, who is a candidate, said “winning elections” was a focus for the party.
Rep. James Talarico’s race for the U.S. Senate has garnered nationwide interest and he will be in attendance.
Candidate Marcus Antonio Orrantia said combatting party corruption is important as the Democrats’ need to unify to defeat “Republicans in November and plan for the next cycle.”
“I’m not sure how drastic, but I do think there will be some changes this year, just because coming out of a contentious primary, just where we are as a country and a Trump presidency, I think we’re going to see some strong stances as far as platform and some of the resolutions that come out this year,” Coleman said.
Aside from taking on the business of unifying the party’s platform, convention delegates will embrace a variety of activities and events on their 2026 agenda. Keynote speakers include prominent Democratic party members.
“I’m interested to see how they speak to Texas in this moment of where we are as we’re trying to flip the state, but I’m also interested to see how the delegates take to them and what message really resonates with Texans the most,” Coleman said, adding that live video of the convention’s proceedings, including speaker addresses will be found on the TDC’s YouTube page.
“I mean, we’ve been told that Texas is not really that liberal, or Texas is more conservative, and I think that having speakers who are multifaceted or speakers who represent every side of our big tent, then we get a chance to see who Texas is in this convention, and we’ll have a platform that tells us the direction that we want to go.”
