16 ***^ Sunday 11 August 2019 The Sunday Telegraph
Democrats ready to make their move after
Republican ‘Texodus’ in wake of shooting
By Nick Allen in Washington
DEMOCRATS are making Texas their
focus in the 2020 election as a “Texo-
dus” of Republican members of Con-
gress deciding not to stand again
begins in earnest.
It has long been predicted that the
changing demographics of Texas, a Re-
publican bastion with a rising Hispanic
population, will turn the state “blue”.
The process appears to have been
accelerated by reaction to the shooting
in El Paso that claimed 22 lives and in-
jured dozens more earlier this month.
Yesterday it emerged that the gun-
man, Patrick Crusius, 21, told police he
was “targeting Mexicans”. He carried
out the shooting at a Walmart store
popular with Hispanic families.
In the run-up to the 2020 presiden-
tial race, there has been much discus-
sion of whether Democrats can retake
“rust belt” states such as Pennsylvania,
Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, which
Donald Trump won in 2016. But if the
Democrat nominee won Texas they
could take the White House without
any of those states.
Texas has 38 of the 270 Electoral Col-
lege votes needed to win, the second
largest of any state. It has not voted for a
Democrat presidential candidate since
- Mr Trump’s margin of victory was
down to nine points in 2016, despite lit-
tle Democrat campaigning. Polls put
both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, the
two leading Democrat contenders,
slightly ahead of Mr Trump.
In the past two weeks four Republi-
can members of Congress announced
they would not seek re-election in
2020, when congressional elections
happen on the same day as the presi-
dential vote. That brought the total
stepping down to 11, a third of the en-
tire Texas congressional delegation.
Further announcements are expected.
Those standing down include Will
Hurd, 41, the only black Republican
congressman in America. He faced los-
ing his district, which has a majority
Hispanic population.
The Democratic Congressional Cam-
paign Committee has ramped up its ef-
forts, establishing offices in Texas,
gleefully mocking the “Texodus,” and
vowing to submit Republicans to a
REUTERSReaction to attack in El
Paso and rise in Hispanic
population could help turn
the Lone Star state ‘blue’
World news
Want to book a
table? I’ll have
to check you
out on Google
By Harriet Alexander in New YorkDISCERNING diners wanting a reser-
vation at one of New York’s most exclu-
sive restaurants were being driven
mad. How was it possible that Fleming
Le Bilboquet was constantly refusing
their requests?
Now they know, after a New York
tabloid lifted the lid on the hotspot’s
saucy secret: staff at the Upper East
Side venue were Googling their guests
to see if they were glamorous enough.
Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for the
20-seater restaurant, confirmed that
they did Google their guests.
Robert de Niro, Paul McCartney and
Ivanka Trump have all been known to
dine at the venue, which serves Proven-
cal cuisine. But if your name is not fa-
miliar to the reservations team, you
will be vetted online.
“We want to keep the restaurant for
special people only,” one waiter told
the New York Post. “We want to main-
tain a certain environment for our cus-
tomers, rich people.”A second employee, who works in
the kitchen, told the newspaper that
anyone who tried to make a reserva-
tion and was not acceptable after being
Googled did not get a call back.
Asked what made someone accepta-
ble, the worker replied: “Rich.”
Mr Vlasto denied the two staff mem-
bers’ claims, insisting that although
they did Google their guests, it was not
to confirm they were rich or famous.
“What the staff is claiming is abso-
lutely not true and whoever said it is
making it up,” he told the paper.
He did not expand on why the res-
taurant Googled its guests, before ac-
cepting their reservation. The Sunday
Telegraph inquired why, but has yet to
receive a response.
Reservations are made through the
website. There is no telephone num-
ber. The Telegraph attempted to make a
reservation, in the name of a friend, but
did not receive a response. The reasons
remain unclear.
The restaurant was opened last year
by billionaire mogul Ronald Perelman,
the 49th richest man in America ac-
cording to Forb es, and restaurateur
Philippe Delgrange.“long and expensive 15 months”. Zac
McCrary, a Democratic pollster, said:
“Trump has really turned out to be an
accelerant for energising young voters
and voters of colour. At the same time,
Trump has so deeply alienated subur-
ban white voters in numbers that are
mind-boggling.”
Amid the doubts among moderates in
the Texas suburbs, Republicans are
gearing up for a fight. Glen Bolger, a Re-
publican pollster, said: “You can win
suburban seats in Texas as a Republi-can. You can win suburban seats any-
where as a Republican. It’s just harder,
and you have to be better prepared, and
be more aggressive ... These are no
longer handed to you on a silver platter.”
However, the exploding Hispanic
population, traditionally Democrat,
presents a perhaps even greater prob-
lem. There are 29 million people in
Texas. Last year it added nine Hispanic
people for every white one.
At current estimates Hispanics, of
whom there are currently 11.4 million,will overtake whites as the largest de-
mographic group in 2022.
Voting enthusiasm is also intensify-
ing, and in parts of Texas the Hispanic
vote was up over 100 per cent in the
2018 midterm elections. El Paso, the
scene of the mass shooting, is a city of
700,000 people, 80 per cent Hispanic.
Cal Jillson, a political science profes-
sor at Southern Methodist University,
said: “Trump ... has destabilised the
traditional Republican majority in
Texas.”Maximo Rosa, Linda
Duarte and Alvaro
Antuna at the burial
of Juan Velazquez,
six days after his
death in the mass
shooting at a
Walmart store in El
Paso, Texas‘Trump has
so deeply
alienated
suburbanwhite voters’
‘We want to keep
maintain a certainenvironment for our
customers, rich people’РЕЛИЗПОДГОТОВИЛАГРУППА"What's News"
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