Democratic Party “Apathy” Is Major Concern in 2024 Elections, Warns ‘Texas, USA’ Director Andrew Morgan
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Five years ago, with Beto O’Rourke mounting an electrifying campaign to unseat Ted Cruz from the U.S. Senate, Democrats seemed hopeful that the political winds were shifting in Texas to one day make it a purple state. He ultimately lost by 2.6 percent amid a record turnout for a mid-term election.
Since then, Democratic hopes for turning Texas into a swing state have diminished. In the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump made gains with Hispanic voters. And the state legislature has become increasingly conservative with a host of bills signed this year by Republican Governor Greg Abbott that include barring public universities from creating DEI offices, banning transgender athletes from college sports, and restricting labor rights. In 2022, abortion was banned in the state following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
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Feature director Andrew Morgan of Untold Creative — who’s previously tackled such subjects as the working conditions of fashion workers around the globe (2015’s The True Cost) and also helmed the 2021 narrative drama Samantha Rose — felt there was an underdog story to be told about politics in the state. But he decided his approach wouldn’t be as much about “the rights that were being taken away” or “the entrenchment of right-wing power that was egregious,” he says.
Instead, Morgan’s new documentary film, Texas, USA, focuses on “the people I met who were fighting back,” as he puts it. They include three 2022 candidates: O’Rourke, who ran unsuccessfully for governor against Abbott, Greg Casar, who was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and is the first Latino elected to Congress from Austin; and Lina Hidalgo, who ran a successful campaign for election as county judge of Harris County, which includes Houston. She’s the first woman and first Latina in the position.
The film — which was feted with a New York premiere thrown by Eco-Age’s Livia Firth and actress Julianne Moore on Sept. 19 — also spotlights a mix of indomitable organizers such as Brianna Brown of the Texas Organizing Project; trans advocate Adri Prez of Texas Freedom Network; criminal justice reform advocate Anthony Graves, an exonerated death row inmate; Tory Gavito of Way to Win; and rural organizer Hannah Horick, who advocates for legal abortion.
Morgan — whose film premiered on Oct. 6 and is available on VOD through such platforms as Apple TV+ and Google Play — spoke with THR about why he’s less cynical about politics after making the movie and why he’s so concerned about the 2024 presidential election.
How did you get started with making Texas, USA?
I got a phone call from one of our producers who’s based in Houston. Two years ago, right after the state legislature had met and passed some of the most conservative laws in the history of the state in the country. She called me and just said, ‘I think there’s a story unfolding here. I think you ought to come down and check it out.’ And I took a trip down to Houston and met up with her, and then spent time in a bunch of other parts of the state over the next couple of weeks. I think for a long time I’d been interested in a story about folks who were fighting for democracy, not in the abstract but in reality, and who were the folks who were working on the stuff where there was a cost. It’s one thing to be for reproductive rights in West Hollywood. What’s it like to organize around that in West Texas?
What do you feel the takeaway from the film is for viewers?
We follow the candidates and the organizers through the 2022 election cycle. Some win, some lose. There’s some elation, there’s some heartbreak. And what you’re left with, I hope, is a sense of tangible hope and inspiration. Not optimism, but actual grounded, determined hope that I hadn’t experienced before. Texas is a state that is more conservative on so many levels than almost every place in America, and really has kind of become ground zero for the conservative imagination in America. So to sort of see people taking the fight to the heart of that establishment is really powerful.
What are some examples of impact that the people portrayed in Texas, USA make?
Brianna Brown runs the Texas Organizing Project, and they run a campaign to reach out to more than a million black voters. We see the school shooting take place at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, but we also see thousands of people show up in front of the NRA convention the next day in Houston to protest it. In the course of this campaign, Beto Rourke loses to Greg Abbott, but Beto’s campaign registers more new voters than any gubernatorial candidate in the history of the state. There is a longer-term trajectory to these things. This is a state where there hasn’t been a Democrat in office statewide in more than three decades. So the kind of person that’s engaged in that fight and that struggle is just powerful and inspiring to anybody who’s working to make change anywhere where that doesn’t feel easy or inevitable. There’s a powerful moment in the film where Greg Casar says, ‘This is our home. We’re not giving up.’
Did making the film broaden your perspective on Texas?
Texas is one of the most diverse states in the country. Texas is home to more black voters than any state in America. It’s a diverse, multicultural place full of all different thoughts and ideas. And to see the fact that it’s been kind of shrunk down to this very specific narrow view of race and gender — it’s really reductive. It’s such a powerful thing to look through the lens of Brianna Brown, who has this great line in the film where she says, ‘Part of our work is helping people understand that it doesn’t have to be this way.’ So much of the film is just that kind of trying to give a sense of imagination around what Texas could be and what America could be.
What is your take on the idea that Texas was going to perhaps trend purple by now?
Part of what I think a lot of us got wrong about that is there was a sense that as it was diversifying as a state, that would just inevitably lead towards the Democrat, which I think we thought a lot as a country for a long time. And what you see in the film is — Brianna has this line where she says, ‘The only way to move forward in the state is to build meaningful and sustained relationships with Black voters.’ In her case, that’s who she’s working through. Sometimes I think it’s very easy to sit in the cheap seats and kind of look at history as this inevitable move towards more and more inclusion and progress. And the reality is that anyone who looks closely at history knows that it’s taken unbelievable amounts of work. It’s taken people choosing to engage themselves in the process. And that’s where we are right now. And we’re right here at a moment where a lot of people in this country don’t believe that politics works. They don’t believe that. And when you give up on that idea, which I completely understand, it feels incredibly broken. You’re just conceding all the ground to the status quo.
How did you put this film together?
We made the film completely independently. So we went and raised like we’ve done with all of our films, independent equity based investment, which in this case was an enormous amount of people contributing small amounts, which was fantastic because it gives us the ability to make the film that we want to make. A huge part of the struggle at the beginning was convincing everyone to give us access. I went and sat in Brianna Brown’s kitchen in Dallas. I went and begged Beto. We were coming in from outside, so we had to build that kind of trust. And then, yeah, we made it. We kept raising funds as we went.
How did making the film affect you?
I am less cynical than when I went in. I’m more inspired than when I went in. Because I think when you see people doing work like that at a cost in a place where it’s not easy, it makes you want to do the same, it makes you like, ‘Who am I to not?’
You’re a filmmaker, not a political prognosticator, but having made the film and immersed yourself in this for years, how are you feeling about next year and the presidential election?
I’m deeply concerned that there is a sense of apathy on the part of the Democratic party and Democratic voters that worries me deeply. I think there’s a feeling that we beat back some of the worst of the Trump stuff and the election denial stuff. And the fact is, that is stronger than ever. And it’s getting more organized than ever. I just don’t think it’s to be taken lightly. So I just keep wanting people to take this next year more seriously. Clearly a lot’s on the line, but I just think there’s a lot of stuff that’s given room to grow when there’s a large amount of apathy.
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