After bruising losses in November that included the White House, the U.S. Senate and House, the Texas Democratic Party elected its new Chairman: Kendall Scudder of Dallas. 

In an interview with CBS News Texas six days after winning the job Scudder said, "It's a new day for the Texas Democratic Party. We can either argue with people and tell them that they were wrong when they chose to stay home and not vote for us, or we can look in the mirror and make some adjustments and try to move forward and re-earn some trust of folks, and that's what I intend to do."

Scudder succeeds Gilberto Hinojosa, who resigned after the November election. Scudder said the party would build a grassroots apparatus across the state as part of his plan to rebuild.

"There are 40 midsize cities in this state that have over 100,000 people in them and we as Democrats have not been there and we've not been present, and so, we're going to change that," said Scudder. "From Amarillo to Brownsville, from El Paso to Texarkana, we're going to be all across the state."

When asked why he believes Democrats stayed home during the 2024 election, Scudder said, "They don't always see a Democratic party that's throwing down and fighting for them, and even if you don't have the levers of power, you should get caught trying, a lot of the time. Democrats try a little bit too hard to be middle of the road and try to be consensus builders. The reality is that's just not where the electorate is anymore. They want to see elected officials across this state that are throwing down and fighting for their families."

Aside from losses at the national level, Democrats lost another chance last year to win a statewide race in Texas. U.S. Representative Colin Allred, D-Dallas, gave up his seat and ran for U.S. Senate against Ted Cruz, R-Texas, but lost by nearly nine percentage points. 

With 2026 around the corner, Allred told a crowd of Democratic supporters in North Dallas Wednesday that he's considering running against Senator John Cornyn, R-Texas who is up for re-election next year. Cornyn may face a primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. 

Scudder said, "Let's be real clear. There's a whole primary process that's at play, and I don't know that we're running against John Cornyn next year. I would really hate to be John Cornyn right now. He is going to have a bloody, bruising primary with Ken Paxton. I will remind people that Colin Allred lost in 2024 by eight points and across the country right now, Democrats are overperforming expectations by 11. So, if you don't think that Texas is in play, then you may not understand math." 

Democrats came close in 2018 to winning a U.S. Senate seat when former Congressman Beto O'Rourke lost to Senator Cruz by a little over two percentage points. But Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas in more than 30 years, and Republican leaders in Texas have said they don't believe that will change next year.