Texan rancher Rena Schroeder has voted Republican her entire life but Donald Trump’s policies have driven her to conversion, as US correspondent Dan Rivers reports
Additional reporting by Jonathan Wald, US News Editor
Politically, Texas is a Republican fortress. It hasn’t elected a Democrat statewide in 32 years.
Yet there are signs that the GOP’s grip on the state could be loosening.
Texan rancher Rena Schroeder has voted Republican her entire life. She voted for Trump both times he ran for president.
Today, however, the president and his policies have driven her to conversion. After watching this second Trump administration embark on a war with Iran, face manifold corruption allegations and build huge AI data centres in the countryside against residents’ objections, Schroeder has crossed the aisle.
Trump appears ready for the fight and aimed to win back his doubters on Wednesday night when he spoke at a special convention in Dallas.
Republicans and Democrats do not usually hold conventions for midterms, but Wednesday’s gathering highlights how much the Trump administration believes is at stake.
The president reveled in making the elections about him and asked the audience to treat it as if he was running for the presidency again, defended the Iran war, and said the Democrats would ruin the country for a decade.
His most dramatic comment was to promise: “If the Republicans win the Senate and House, because of our tremendous strength and success economically, I will issue a dividend to every adult citizen in the United States of America for $5,000 (£3,690).”
The suggestion would cost over a trillion dollars, and would likely be illegal.
I asked Schroeder before the speech if she thought the convention would make any difference.
“We don’t think so. We’re not feeling that excitement. You’re not feeling that in the air,” Schroeder says.
“You’re not hearing about it when you’re in the in the grocery market. You’re not hearing that when you’re on someone’s ranch. You’re not hearing when you’re at church here. We’re not hearing that.
“We’re hearing we’re not voting for Trump. But very quietly, there are a few of us who are speaking loudly. There’s a few of us who are, you know, we’re very vocal about breaking rank, but behind the scenes, there’s a lot more who are.”
She initially ran this year, unsuccessfully, to be the Republican candidate for local state senate. She is currently campaigning on the side of the Democratic candidate for that seat. She harbours hopes of running as the Democratic candidate in several years’ time to challenge Republican Senator Ted Cruz.
Her change of political heart has led to multiple death threats in this deeply conservative area of rural mid-Texas, where some see her reform as a betrayal.
“I had one quite recently, about two weeks ago,” Schroeder says.
“It was a Saturday afternoon and I got a phone call and the guy said, ‘is this Rena the cowgirl?’ And I said, ‘who is this?’
“He said, ‘I’m going to burn your family, burn your house, and then burn all your horses.’ But because I’m not intimidated easily, I said, well, you try that, but you’re not going to make it out of our property.”
Schroeder lives in the tiny community of Lott, which has a population of just 644.
Most of her neighbours remain largely loyal to Trump, but she says increasingly some are “breaking rank” with the president, feeling let down at his handling of the economy and international affairs.
“They feel betrayed. So they are breaking rank a lot. And it’s very secret. It will show on the ballot. It will show in November,” she says as we sit in the garden of her ranch.
The important midterm elections are less than two months away and will determine the make-up of the Senate and House of Representatives.
One of the 35 Senate seats up for re-election is in Texas, where polls show a tight race between Republican former state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s been mired in corruption allegations, which he denies, and young former school teacher, Democrat James Talarico.
The battle for Congress is so finely poised that if Talarico could turn Texas Democrat blue, it could make the difference between Republicans controlling the Senate and the Democrats controlling the upper chamber.
If the Democrats prevail, Trump and his administration would face more investigations, more scrutiny, and more subpoenas – and it would be a thorn in his side for the last two years of his presidency.
Losing both the Senate and the House would require a significant shift in the status quo, but polls show some Republicans are considering either voting Democrat or not voting at all.
The cost of living and high price of fuel caused by the war in Iran are factors many are blaming on the president.
If Trump lost both chambers of Congress, it would likely lead to calls for a third attempt at his impeachment.
There are a lot of ‘ifs’ here, with plenty of seats simply too close to call, according to current polling.
However, the Democrats have got the scent of blood and are pouring money into states like Texas where suddenly the political orthodoxy of many years is being turned on its head.
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