February 22, 2021

TO: Texas Victory and VEP Bundlers and Donors

FROM: Senator John Cornyn

RE: Texas Democrats postmortem

Did you hear the news?

Before the election, Democrats promised their donors the moon. They’d carry Texas for Biden,
beat me, take three or four or five Congressional seats, win an open Railroad Commission race
for their first statewide down-ballot victory since 1994 and flip at least nine state House seats
to take control of the Texas House.

Well, we made sure they didn’t deliver on a single one of those promises. So now they’re
making excuses for what went wrong by releasing an official postmortem last night. It’s very
revealing about where they came up short, but also shows where we bested them.

They admit they got beat in both registration and voter contact but didn’t admit who beat
them. You and I know who that was: it was the Volunteer Engagement Project and Texas
Victory Committee efforts your generously supported that overpowered them. I’ll highlight
the Dem’s findings and you can find the full report here. I’ve also enclosed some articles I
thought you might enjoy.

What went wrong for Dems, in their own words

The Dems admit that they lost the registration battle. They say, "Despite Democrats gradually
building a voter registration advantage from 2018 to mid-2020, Republican voter registration
outpaced Democratic registration by so much that Republicans netted roughly 88,000 votes
from the final three months of voter registration, or 13.9% of the total deficit” (Pg. 6). That’s an
endorsement for further investment into voter registration if I’ve ever heard one.

They also admit they got out worked in voter contact. Numbers show "Republicans did better
in activating their base in Texas among high propensity voters, low propensity voters and
everyone in between. Republicans had a better turnout operation than we did” (Pg.9). They
blame the pandemic for taking away their ability to use traditional methods like door knocking.

But we Republicans faced the very same challenges, yet remained flexible and shifted to non-
traditional contact until we established a safe way of knocking doors as early as July 2020.
Of course, it’s all about the money

It wouldn’t be a true Democrat postmortem if they didn’t ask for more money after talking
about squandering their last donations. They again told donors that the next time will just
require a lot more money from them. This is after Democrats outspent Republicans in Texas,
especially in the final month as they demonstrated an almost endless ability to pump money in
from California and the East Coast.

This document makes it clear we have a lot to celebrate from November still, but also that we
need to keep this renewed GOP interest in on-going voter registration and aggressive get-out-
the-vote work aimed at low propensity voters going.

Final Thoughts

Democrats just couldn’t keep up with the VEP’s 213,000 new GOP registrations or the Texas
Victory Committee’s 36 million voter contacts. For that, we have key leaders to thank. For VEP,
we had the ever-valuable Steve Munisteri leading the charge along with Mitch Carney as the
VEP’s very capable director. Then there was the Texas Victory Committee, with my terrific
campaign manager, John Jackson, at the helm with Spencer Davis directing the day-to-day and
together executing the most aggressive GOP GOTV program in a very long time. For both
efforts, we have Karl Rove to thank for leading the fundraising and offering strategic advice.

Most important of all, there’s you. None of this would have been possible without your
generous support of these vital efforts. Even our adversaries recognize you unleashed an
extraordinary effort that brought victory for Texas Republicans up and down the ballot. For
that, you’ll always have my gratitude for your commitment to our cause.