VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: U.S. Rep. Greg Casar On ‘Texas, U.S.A.,’ When The Lone Star State Will Go Blue

U.S. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) thinks his ruby-red home state of Texas is going blue.

Casar spoke about his 2022 campaign, which was featured in the new documentary Texas, U.S.A., with uInterview founder Erik Meers.

“It was a really fast and quick campaign,” Casar recalled. “I was committed to being an Austin city council member, had been working to make sure that people’s homes weren’t lost during the pandemic, make sure that people were able to survive that time of sickness and difficulty for so many people was working on that recovery.”

When the seat opened up in Congress, Casar decided that this “felt like the right moment” as he wanted to speak about “the really big issues facing people across the country, but especially in Texas where abortion was starting to become outlawed.”

During his campaign, abortion was outlawed in Texas right after the state had faced major natural disasters.

For Casar, he felt that Texas needed “to talk about the big, bold ideas that were actually going to solve Texans everyday problems.” 

“The campaign was really about those big issues and the fact that even as a progressive, there are a growing number of people in Texas that believe in coming together and using democracy to care for one another rather than distorting the democratic process and utilizing it to blame each other or to hurt the vulnerable,” he said.

The film also features the campaigns of Lina Hidalgo, who won reelection by a small margin as judge for Harris County, which includes Houston, and Beto O’Rourke, who lost to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.

Casar asserted that this election cycle showed that “Texas is trending in the progressive direction and it’s heading that way, getting that way closer and closer every single time.”

He acknowledged the sacrifices that O’Rourke and his family had made during O’Rourke’s campaign and that even though he lost, he “really helped continue trending Texas in the right direction because you can win or lose elections but you don’t win and lose organizing.”

For Casar, this election cycle reminded him of when he walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge as an official member of Congress. He recalled a specific moment when “some of the women that I was crossing the bridge with who were at the original protest in the 60s said, ‘No this isn’t a commemoration, it’s just the 30th or 40th or 50th time that we’ve had to do this on our march towards justice.’”

This memory stayed with him and showed him how “these campaigns sometimes can be seen like they’re won and lost in a few short months, but really they’re part of a longer part of history.” He connected this to O’Rouke’s campaign and how people will “recognize that without his campaign we never would have achieved the change that we’ve been able to achieve.”

Casar believes that it is time for Texas to make a change. “For too long Texas has led the nation in having greater and greater inequality, greater and greater oligarchy, greater and greater authoritarianism, greater and greater environmental destruction,” he said.

He doesn’t want people to see his goal as just to turn Texas into a blue state but for it to “believe in democracy and believe in caring for one another, is for more everyday folks to be inspired and get the chance to be involved.”

The Democratic campaigns shown in Texas, U.S.A. “are so critical to making sure that everyday folks see that there are options, there are people who really want to listen to them and care about them and I think that that’s what’s going to change the state and therefore the country.”

Before going off to vote, Casar briefly addressed the news about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s latest acquittal. “I wasn’t surprised and I think most people shouldn’t be surprised to see Texas Republicans letting somebody off for such blatant corruption,” he said. “Politicians aren’t going to save us from this challenge, it’s up to everyday people and voters to organize and demand better and I think that’s the message that we’re going to carry out while in office.”

Casar believes that it is his job to “show people that there is a different path than the one we’re on, a path where folks are more equal, a path where people have healthcare and housing as a human right, a path towards a kinder and more reasonable state because in our past Texas used to lead on progressive issues.” 

Texas, U.S.A. is now available to stream on most major platforms.