All John Cornyn had to do was retweet a link to an article called
Texas gained almost nine Hispanic residents for every additional white resident last year
to have people wondering what he was doing. (HINT: He knows exactly what's he doing.) Cornyn didn't make any comment, one way or the other, just left this dog-whistle out there, as he usually does. Expect more of these type of links as he prepares for his Senate race in 2020.
Source: Texas Tribune
The gap between Texas’ Hispanic and white populations continued to narrow last year when the state gained almost nine Hispanic residents for every additional white resident.
With Hispanics expected to become the largest population group in Texas as soon as 2022, new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau showed the Hispanic population climbed to nearly 11.4 million — an annual gain of 214,736 through July 2018 and an increase of 1.9 million since 2010.
The white population, meanwhile, grew by just 24,075 last year. Texas still has a bigger white population — up to 11.9 million last year — but it has only grown by roughly 484,000 since 2010. The white population’s growth has been so sluggish this decade that it barely surpassed total growth among Asian Texans, who make up a tiny share of the total population, in the same time period.
The estimates come as lawmakers begin to sharpen their focus on the 2021 redistricting cycle, when they’ll have to redraw the state’s congressional and legislative maps to account for population growth. And they highlight the extent to which the demographics of the state continue to shift against the Republican Party.
Beyond the jarring headline, the facts are essentially presented as they are. Growth among the Hispanic population continues to dwarf that of "whites." And that this should portend ill for the Republican Party, if voting patterns continue as they are present.
What Cornyn is doing, however, is obvious as well. Stoking fear for these changing demographics. It's what people like him do.
