McAllen, Texas (MSNBC) — Battleground Texas, a Democratic group working to turn the Lone Star State blue, gathered a group of 20 or so young volunteers in a college classroom here last weekend just a few miles from the Mexican border. They came to be trained in the nuts and bolts of political organizing–how to register new voters, set up phone banks and door-to-door canvasses on behalf of Wendy Davis, the Democratic candidate for governor. But, over a lunch of tamales and salsa, an organizer asked participants, nearly all Hispanic, to share the personal stories that had led them to get involved.
