AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Republicans barely escaped a colossal defeat last year. Now the party is scrambling to avoid a repeat in 2020.

Facing a rapidly changing voter base, anti-Trump fervor and a more motivated Democratic Party, the state GOP is moving earlier than ever to prepare after watching two House members lose in 2018 and another half-dozen win by fewer than 5 points.

The party has set new fundraising goals and placed field staffers in Dallas and Fort Worth nine months earlier than in the last election cycle to facilitate more engagement with voters, with plans to expand the early hiring to other major metro areas to stanch bleeding Republican support in the suburbs.

“We are taking seriously our need to earn every vote in Texas,” said James Dickey, chairman of the Texas Republican Party. And donors “are also taking it much more seriously when I tell them how desperately I need them to participate or become a supporter of the party,” Dickey added.