Six months into his tenure as chair of the Texas Democratic Party, Kendall Scudder is moving the party’s headquarters from Austin to his hometown of Dallas, prompting an exodus of top staff and throwing the party into a state of upheaval ahead of a critical midterm election, according to interviews with over a dozen people familiar with the dynamics.

Every member of the party’s top staff, including the executive director, chief of staff and two communications staffers, is departing after Scudder required them to agree to move to Dallas by November — or else be laid off. A fifth top staffer has already quit, and more departures among the seven other staffers are expected.

The State Democratic Executive Committee, the party’s governing board, voted on Sept. 13 to close the party’s Austin h

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