AUSTIN — The Texas Democratic Convention is trying to make it obvious: Women are the party's future.

The ballot this fall is stocked with female candidates in congressional, statehouse and statewide races, and the party is featuring them prominently during its convention, which runs through Saturday.

Related: On the campaign trail with Lupe Valdez

The day kicked off with a women's caucus on the main stage, which former gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis moderated and current candidate Lupe Valdez headlined. Valdez spoke of her experiences as a leader in the male-dominated fields of the military and law enforcement. But she said women candidates would bring "balance" to a state government that has gone off the rails.

"It's going to take all of us. This is Texas," she told a majority female crowd. "This is who Texas is. We are the ones who are going to balance Texas. We need the balance and the balance is coming through the Democratic Party."

Gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez, center, poses for photos with delegates during the Texas Democratic Convention on Friday, June 22, 2018 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth. (Ashley Landis / Staff Photographer)

Rep. Celia Israel, D-Austin, the chairwoman of the party's platform committee, channeled a quote from the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards: "This is our time, ladies, to raise a little more hell."

Then the party's female candidates took the stage for a round of applause.

Lena Wells, the president of Texas Democratic Women of Rural North Texas, said her group's shirts that read "Vote Like a Girl" are "selling like hot cakes."

She said Democratic women are leading the pushback against Republican policies that attack women and the poor.

"Women are fed up finally, and that's why we're running," Wells said. "If we keep going back like this, we're going to go back to the '50s."

The "Vote For Her" political action committee's booth also proudly displayed trading cards of Valdez and six women candidates running for the Texas House.

"Everyone has a really strong path to victory," said Jacob Limon, a consultant for several women candidates. "The only thing that stops that is depressed voter turnout."