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A document emailed to Democrats having the Texas Republican Party’s strategy for the 2020 election. It shows a plan over the next 12 months to push back on the narrative that the GOP lacks diversity and counteract Donald Trump’s potential negative impact on the race. The document was started appearing in the inboxes of Democrats during the current week. It lays out concerns regarding the polarizing nature of Trump’s presidency. The document also includes ways to counteract the narrative driven by Democrats that the GOP lacks diversity in a state where a quickly growing Hispanic population has shown considerable concern that the reliably red state could soon be competitive.

The Dallas Morning News has reported that the document says, “Starting after the Primary, the RPT will generate micro-sites for negative hits against the Democrat candidates in our 12 target race. We expect each micro-site to be roughly 500 U.S dollars”. The document says the websites will mimic the names of Democratic candidates and will reroute to pages featuring attack ads on those same individuals. It says, “We will then start rolling out these websites, prioritizing the races that were within 4% in the 2018 election. The Morning News reports that Democrats see 2020 as an opportunity to build on gains they saw last year when they took 12 seats from Republicans to narrow the partisan divide in the state House to 83-67.

Democrats are remarking on the apparently accidental leak. They mocked the Texas Republican Party for the mishap. The executive director of the Texas Democratic Party, Manny Garcia said, “Republicans have already fumbled the ball and we aren’t even in 2020 yet“. Garcia added, “They know they’re in deep trouble given the polarizing nature of the President and expect Republicans will refuse to turn out during the General Election due to they don’t need to vote for him”. It is noteworthy that Texas hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976 and hasn’t had an elected Democrat in the Senate since 1993.