I’m part of the reason Texas gained 4 electoral votes. I moved from Oregon, a safe blue state. Now, if only more of you Democrats would move down here we might put this state in play!
I disagree. What if the Democrats run someone who is fairly UNpopular, like Dukakis or, bless him, Mondale? What if the Republicans were to run someone fairly popular among the right and moderate voters, like Reagan? In each case, the popularity among those demographic groups wouldn’t be enough to preclude wins for the Republicans in some or all of the 19 states in question, just as it wasn’t in 1984 or 1988.
The only reason things have been consistently close is because the demographics are the way they are, and the Republicans have been running some pretty poor candidates. Might be a very different story if they actually select someone people will get excited about, like Jeb Bush.