Talk turned to state Sen. Wendy Davis, who in late June arrived at the Legislature in pink sneakers and embarked on an epic 12-hour filibuster of anti-abortion legislation. Although the legislation ultimately did pass, Davis' filibuster catapulted her to national prominence, with Democrats in the state feverishly hoping she decides to make a play for the governor’s mansion in 2014. Davis says she will announce her plans at the end of the month.

Among the group at Kinsey’s gathering was Caitlin Karbula, a staffer for Battleground Texas, a nascent political organization that set up shop in Austin seven months ago with the ambitious goal of ending one-party rule in the state. The project was started by Jeremy Bird, who ran the national field operation for Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign and has exhibited a talent for coaxing Democratic-leaning minority and young voters to the polls in key swing states. The organization, which has 19 full-time staff members and has raised $1.1 million this year, according to its latest financial disclosure reports, is directing much-needed resources to the state’s starved Democratic Party.

There are smaller victories for Democrats, too. Last year Mary Gonzalez, a 29-year-old, openly LGBT and unapologetically progressive graduate student and activist, ran for a state House seat in a socially conservative West Texas district, won her primary against two male Democrats and went on to win the general election uncontested.

"No one thought that someone like me would get elected, and I think it is an indicator of things that are changing,” she told Al Jazeera. “People are now realizing Texas has much more potential to be progressive than anyone ever thought.”

Democrats in Texas, like Kinsey and her friends, believe that prolonged one-party rule has disregarded the needs of the state’s most marginalized populations -- the legions of low-wage workers in the state, the uninsured and poor minorities. They also charge that decades of GOP dominance have created a culture of chronically low political participation.

But they see hope in the long-shimmering but unfulfilled promise of changing demographics in Texas, where 38 percent of the population is Latino, a segment that sides with Democrats nationally by a 2-1 ratio. Add in the new political infrastructure being built by Battleground Texas, plus the recent infusion of energy in the party, led by Davis, and a Texas Democrat could believe that a purple Texas is at least in the realm of possibility.