How Texas became a Republican stronghold
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Texas has been in its GOP era for more than two decades, but it was Democratic for far longer than it has been Republican.
Why it matters: The party in control decides the state's political agenda, how political districts should be drawn and how Texas should spend its money.
- The state's conservative politics influence national policies on immigration, the border and the economy.
The big picture: Texas governors were Democrats from the 1870s to the 1970s.
- In 1978, Dallas businessman William P. Clements became Texas' first Republican governor in over a century.
- The state has voted for the Republican nominee in every presidential election since 1980.
Flashback: Even when Democratic politics dominated the state, Texans were the more conservative members of the national party, SMU political science professor Cal Jillson tells Axios.
- As the Democratic Party became more liberal to champion civil rights and integration, Texans started shifting red.
- It wasn't that their values had changed — they felt more aligned with the Republican party, Jillson says.
The intrigue: The 1980s and 1990s were a competitive era in state politics, with both parties competing for votes, Jillson says.
- Republicans solidified their control of statewide offices under George W. Bush's governorship in the 1990s.
- Republicans became the majority in the Texas Senate in 1997 and in the Texas House in 2003. In 2005, Republicans won a majority of the U.S. House seats in Texas for the first time since Reconstruction.
State of play: Texas' governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general have all become more conservative in recent years, reflecting the Republican party's direction in Texas and nationally.
- Governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry were big on education reform and education spending. Perry signed a law allowing undocumented immigrants to get in-state tuition at state universities, considered liberal by today's politics.
- Gov. Greg Abbott has pushed an increasingly conservative agenda on gun laws, abortion, immigration, school vouchers, Medicaid expansion and limiting local property tax increases.
Yes, but: Democrat Beto O'Rourke came close to unseating Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018, losing by 2.6 percentage points.
- The momentum allowed Democrats to pick up several seats in the Legislature.
- When O'Rourke ran for governor in 2022, Abbott won by almost 11 points to secure his third term.
What's next: "As the demographics continue to change, it's quite likely that we will have more competitive politics in Texas over the course of the coming decade or so," Jillson says.
- Ted Cruz faces U.S. Rep. Colin Allred (D-Dallas) this fall. Polls show Cruz leading.