Last year, with the midterms fast approaching, some Texas Democrats began talking about putting together a “super ticket,” a dream team of battle-tested franchise players who could raise big money and drive turnout across strategic demographic groups.

They wanted the Avengers. They got Miracle on Ice.

But just like Team USA facing the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics, the ragtag group of scrappy underdogs the Democrats put together ended up pulling off the impossible, beating seemingly insurmountable odds to win not just one major contest, but every statewide seat.

A group of little-known state legislators and one millennial farmer unseated longtime GOP powerbrokers and their wealthy backers, reversing the state’s entire political power structure in one night.

At the top of the ticket, Austin state Rep. James Talarico managed to haul in record-setting amounts of money for the U.S. Senate race and build a national brand through his social media presence. His colleague, Austin state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, saw fundraising and attention surge in the home stretch of her challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott.

But the rest of the ticket struggled to build the branding and get the funding needed to break through in a state the size of a small country. Less than a month before the election, about half of likely voters did not know enough to have an opinion on the Democratic nominees for lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller and railroad commissioner, according to the Texas Politics Project.

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[–] 1 point 23 hours ago

Also in the context of Texas there is hate for Paxton. He was impeach by his own party for corruption and other Republicans were actually stumping against him. And a lot of people are pissed at Abbott for the school vouchers, and Patrick for taking away what legal access to weed we had. Once you had Republicans breaking for Talarico that opened the door for them to consider going whole ticket.

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