Super Tuesday is closer than you think. What are presidential candidates doing to win Texas?

When Beto O'Rourke dropped out of the presidential race, Lizette Cruz was left in the same position as many fellow Texas voters, wondering who to vote for in the March 3 primary.

That search would lead her to the opening of Elizabeth Warren’s Austin office. Cruz wanted a candidate to support, and candidates want the support of Texans.

As Super Tuesday approaches, Warren and the other top Democrats are all too aware that Texas has 228 of the 1,990 delegates needed to win the nomination on the first ballot at the national convention in Milwaukee.

The only states with more pledged delegates is fellow Super Tuesday state California with 416 and New York with 274. 

"On Super Tuesday, it's us and California that are the big prizes," said Manny Garcia, executive director of the Texas Democratic Party. "We've seen a different level of activity from Democratic presidential campaigns, now coming to Texas and not just coming to Texas in order to raise resources ... but rather to seek the votes of Texas Democrats." 

Several of the candidates have made stops in Texas in recent weeks and are actively organizing volunteers on the ground. Candidates have also hired Texas staffers and opened offices in the state. 

Whether a Democrat can actually win Texas come November remains to be seen, but March 3 is just around the corner with early voting even sooner, beginning Feb. 18.

A November University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll, taken while O'Rourke and fellow Texan Julian Castro were still in the race, found that no Democratic 2020 presidential candidate would beat Trump in Texas. 

The same poll had Biden leading in the state for the Democratic primary, followed by Warren, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg. 

Democratic presidential candidates efforts in Texas 

About 80 people gathered at The Friendly Spot Ice House in San Antonio on Jan. 8, sitting around in bright colored patio chairs as they waited for Sanders' Texas Field Director Chris Chu de León to speak. 

They were at the San Antonio watering hole for a Turnout Texas Tour event. More than 30 Sanders events like it are being hosted across the state as the campaign ramps up its organizing efforts ahead of the March primaries. 

More:Beto O'Rourke starts grassroots group to help Democrats in Texas elections

"The strategy came out of the idea that Texas is a really big state, and there's this perception that it's really red, but the reality is, Texas is a really low voter turnout (state)," Chu de León said. "There's a lot of reasons for that — partially it's voter suppression, it's people who are not able to vote, but I believe it's primarily people are not being activated and asked to vote." 

Supporters were encouraged to get involved with phone banking and block walking, and to host their own campaign events. 

Sanders' campaign has hired three Texas staffers thus far, including Chu de León, and has more than 140 volunteers leading the effort to organize other volunteers in the state, according to the campaign. 

The campaigns of Warren, Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg have all hired state directors. Buttigieg's team has an organizing director based out of Austin who's tasked with strategy in several states in the west and southwest. 

In recent months, the Warren campaign has made strides in its Texas organization, setting up offices in San Antonio and Austin and hiring more than two dozen senior staffers and organizers in the state. She'll open a Houston office Friday.  

"I think the fact that we're here right now is a sign that we (Texas) are more and more important every day," said State Director Jenn Longoria, whose hiring was announced in October. "Voters in Texas matter and our voices are heard. The fact that we're such a big state works to our advantage because we are an important state that should be heard." 

Warren has garnered the endorsements of several Texans, including Julian Castro, who endorsed Warren just days after exiting the presidential race. The University of Houston Graduate and former UT-Austin law school instructor has also leaned on her Texas ties throughout the campaign. 

She also gained the endorsement of Lizette Cruz, who started paying closer attention to Warren after O'Rourke's exit. 

"I think this is my first time just realizing this is who I want to vote for," the 24-year-old said, at the office opening. "This is who I want to try and get in the White House and, you know, win the presidency."

Biden has led Texas in several polls and garnered a number of Texas endorsements, including Freshman Congressman Colin Allred.

"You can see the momentum by just the endorsements, and I think that's a big play and I think that's where it starts there," said Director of Strategic Communications Kamau Marshall.

During a December rally in San Antonio, Biden said the voters can expect to see a lot of him. 

"You're going to be seeing a whole lot of me between now and next November, God willing, because if I have the honor of winning this nomination, then I'm going to compete here in Texas to win Texas," he said at the event, livestreamed by San Antonio New Station KSAT. 

Biden was back in Texas on Jan. 15 where he spoke at the National Baptist Convention in Arlington and on Jan. 16, holding private fundraisers in Dallas, Houston and Spring, Texas.

Buttigieg, too, is relying on Texan's support — with Austin Mayor Steve Adler acting as a surrogate of sort for the former South Bend mayor. 

"I just think that his politics right now fit best with the way that I think Texans are ultimately are going to vote," Adler said. 

Buttigieg has made several visits to Texas, most recently for private Dallas and Houston fundraisers. The campaign declined to comment on how many people attended the events and ticket pricing. 

“This state has been very good to our campaign,” he said, according to a pool report. "We get it and we’re going to be here for the long haul.”

A curveball in Texas could be latecomer Michael Bloomberg.

The billionaire former New York Mayor is foregoing the early states and made stops in San Antonio, Austin and Dallas on Jan. 11. His campaign is opening more than a dozen offices in Texas, including one in El Paso.

A few hundred people gathered outside at a Austin brewery as Bloomberg pitched himself as the candidate for Texas. Some at the event were still undecided on who'd they vote for, but Bloomberg is throwing resources into the state trying to win them over. 

He's spent more than $15 million on television ads in Texas, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission records by Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. 

"If Bloomberg does not win a significant number of delegates in Texas, then that would raise serious questions about his overall strategy of effectively trying to use his financial resources in television and digital media to essentially outspend his opponents and gain support that way," Jones said.

What does it take to be successful in Texas? 

To be successful on March 3rd in Texas, Jones said it will require identifying your supporters and mobilizing them to turn out, endorsements to help with name recognition and to act as surrogates and money.

There are more candidates in the Democratic field than in recent election cycles. In 2008 there was Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In 2012, Obama was the sole candidate. In 2016 by Super Tuesday, it was between Sanders and Clinton. 

The field continues to consolidate, but remains "heavily fragmented," Jones said. 

"You're dealing with campaigns that are trying to do a lot of things at the same time, and so you're not seeing the same level of organization that you saw in say the 2008 campaign or to a lesser extent the 2016 campaign," Jones said. 

Looking at how the candidates have been engaging in Texas thus far, Jones noted that Sanders has been working to revitalize his 2016 network. He said Warren has also put resources into the state, but said that seems to have dwindled some as the campaign began to have some financial issues. 

Biden and Buttigieg's organization in the state doesn't appear to be as strong, he said.

"They've certainly been very present in raising money in Texas," said Democratic Strategist Colin Strother of the pool of candidates, with a laugh. "As to their primary operations, everyone's still kind of getting started." 

Strother, who said he isn't involved in any of the campaigns, said Beto proved that Texas can be competitive. Now it's up to the candidates and the DNC to invest the personnel and resources to "make that happen." 

"I think they have to take a page from Beto's playbook and go to as many places as possible," Strother said. "You cant just do the triangle where you do Houston, Dallas, San Antonio or Houston, Dallas Austin." 

Cruz, who attended Warren's event in Austin, has been volunteering with the campaign by going out and talking with potential voters about Warren. She's done canvassing for the campaign three times and said she felt welcomed into the process. 

By her assessment, Warren has done the best job hitting the ground running in Texas. 

While out knocking on doors, Cruz said she's noticed people sometimes seem surprised about someone coming and talking to them. That tells her that in past cycles presidential candidates — particularity Democrats — may not have been paying enough attention to Texas. 

David Garza, a 39-year-old teacher from San Antonio, was at the Sanders' volunteer event. He's backing the Vermont senator — pointing to Sanders' consistency in policy stances — but said he's disappointed in candidates' efforts in Texas thus far. 

"The reason I'm disappointed is, Texas is a very populous state," Garza said. "We're a very diverse state. I look that some of the other states they're in, Iowa, New Hampshire, I don't see that diversity there. It's a little disappointing." 

For a Democrat to win Texas, Garza said he thinks it will take new voters coming out to the polls. 

"We need to start appealing to those people who have felt left out of the political process," Garza said. "Who feel that it's apathetic, like they're not cared about." 

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