Texas Senate District 16 was a Republican stronghold for decades, championed by actual conservatives such as Don Huffines. Still, in 2018 SD-16 flipped blue during the Beto-onslaught – when Robert Francis O’Rourke carried many down-ballot Democrats to victory, despite his narrow loss to Senator Ted Cruz.

Brandon Copeland is the youngest republican nominee for State Senate in Texas. If Copeland wins in November, he will become one of the youngest State Senators in Texas history. Copeland grew up in Dallas, graduated from Texas A&M University, and works in commercial real estate development in Dallas.

During the primary, both parties’ candidates ran uncontested. Copeland garnered over 21,000 votes, a 9000 vote deficit from Democrat Nathan Johnson, demonstrating how redistricting and gerrymandering have shifted favor toward Democrats in SD-16. Nonetheless, the extreme and disastrous agenda pushed by the Biden Administration has ostracized many moderate voters across Texas and opened a path to victory for Copeland.

We had a chance to speak with Copeland’s team, and they highlighted some specific points that they think are important to this race.

“We have identified around 89,000 GOP voters, 100,000 Democratic voters, and 50,000 swing voters within the district. Brandon’s path to victory is simple: turn out the GOP base and move swing voters with his grounded legislative priorities. We anticipate that there will be extremely low enthusiasm for Democrats in SD-16, and we are seeing many demographic trends working in our favor. Hispanic communities are turning out for Republicans in historic numbers as demonstrated by Mayra Flores’ election in TX-34.”

Copeland is running a campaign focused on policy issues Texans care about, specifically education, the economy, and the border.

With the right grassroots support, Copeland and GOP can win back SD-16 from Democrats along with other contested races in Dallas. There are many blue districts in play this election, but if Republicans want to see a true red wave, they will need to look beyond their own district lines and rally for conservative candidates across the state.