Texas Democrats kick off state convention, with 2022 hopes riding on guns, abortion and the power grid

Texas Democrats are kicking off their state convention Thursday in Dallas, where they’ll hone a midterm message that is already taking shape around two major issues — abortion and guns — that have burned their candidates in past elections.

The scene is a familiar one for Texas’ minority party, still in search of the recipe to snap a 28-year statewide losing streak spanning six gubernatorial elections. After failing to unseat Gov. Greg Abbott and other state Republican leaders in 2018, Democrats will take another crack this fall under less friendly...