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For years now Texas has been one of the strongest, if not the strongest, Republican state in all of America. The history of partisan politics in Texas is a messy one, and with the help of a key source “The Republican Party of Texas: Overview and History[1]”, as well as a few others, I will portray the crazy past of Texas politics. Nowadays Texas has been trusting Republicans to run offices, be in the state senate, the board of education, and even the state house.
Now a majority party in most Texas counties, Republicans seem to have taken over the culture of Texas. Believe it or not Texas’s own George W. Bush became the 43rd President of the united states coming from Texas. However, things had not always been this easy for Republicans, in fact, “for over one hundred years, the Republican Party was not a viable force in Texas politics.
[They] were the second party in a one-party state.” Not one time did the GOP win a race during that span and hardly controlled any seats in Legislature.
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The Republican party was not a popular party in Texas back then, as the Democratic party ruled most of Texas. How did the Republican party spark up? Well in 1854, a group of abolitionists founded the Republican party. This was right before the civil war, as slavery was becoming a controversial topic around the nation. Texas, being a southern state, was right in the middle of all the controversy, thus making it a target for democrats.
Keep in mind that Texas was still heavily Democratic, and forced all who supported Abraham Lincoln from office. One important character who was a victim of this was the famous Sam Houston, Texas’s first state Governor.
The result of this was Texas became an ally of the Confederacy. After the civil war and the Union had become victorious over the Confederacy, Texas would never be the same again. With Texas still highly democratic and the Union winning, people “would not forgive the republican party.” Who supported the Republicans the most during those times? African Americans, as they made up the majority of the GOP. According to my source, “the first ever state Republican convention that met in Houston on July 4, 1867 was predominantly African American”, and there was around 150 African Americans that attended the event. In my opinion, I am not surprised the majority was African American. With slavery running rampant in the south, and racism at an all time high, the people who benefit the most from Republicans are the slaves in the south, particularly the African Americans. So it is no wonder they were huge supporters of this party.
Republicans favored getting rid of slavery, so the Democrats in Texas obviously despised this group. There was a man by the name of Norris Wright Cuney, an African American man, who became the second State GOP Chairman and also “led the Republican Party from 1883 to 1897.” This was a special thing for an African American to hold this political power back then and he was well respected by others. The reconstruction era proved to be a challenging time for republicans during this time. Though the Union may have won the civil war, there was still plenty issues left that came with the victory. The victory freed more than 4 million slaves, the southern states legislatures passed what is known as the “Black Codes[2]”, these codes controlled the behavior and labor of African Americans or former slaves.
The North obviously did not like these codes which led to the Presidential Reconstruction and led to a more powerful Republican Party. However, organizations like the Ku Klux Klan would emerge, causing racial tensions to rise dramatically and bring a sense of white supremacy to the south. These clans were prominent in Texas, Georgie, mainly all of the south. Hate crimes and lynching became public events and white supremacy seemed to have taken over. However, with Abraham Lincolns Emancipation Proclamation, he freed more than 3 million slaves in the Confederate states. However, this did not stop the Ku Klux Klan and other radicals from continuing their terror.
This was a tough time for African Americans and the Republican Party. During the late 19th century however, Republicans in Texas made bounds of success and started to really grow as a party. According to the source, “nearly one-third of the statewide vote went to republicans” in 1876 and even some Republicans won an election into the State Legislature, some also being African American. However, for the next sixty years or so the Republican Party would tread water as the Terrell election law would hinder Texans from paying a poll tax, slandering the Republican Party. It would be in 1926 that the first statewide primary for republicans would be held, however hardly anyone even voted. Over the next forty years or so only two more primaries were held, while the Democrat Primary had the upmost participation. In 1947, Captain J.F. Lucey was committed to construct a powerful; Republican Party in Texas. He founded what is known as the “Republican Club of Texas”, hoping to spark up the Republican party. The Republican party almost had a huge win during the presidential election year 1960 as Republican Richard M. Nixon ran against Democrat John F. Kennedy. Nixon would win 49 percent of the state votes, coming in second right behind Kennedy. Even though the Republican Party lost, there was a sense of accomplishment, as the winner was just two percent more.
The battle was a close one, and the Republican party had made great progress. Six years later, there were two Republicans elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, one of those men being the soon to be president Mr. George H. W. Bush. As the Republican Party continued to grow stronger and larger, the impact was not only in the presidential field, but also the Senate and the Legislature. According to the same source, it was in 1972 that 17 Republicans were elected to the House of Representatives, as well as three were elected to the senate. The Republican Party was sinking its roots into the Legislature. It was in 1978 that the first Republican Governor of Texas in the past 100 years would be elected, and his name was William P. Clements, Jr. However, this would be a short lived victory, as Clements Jr. was defeated in 1982. Nevertheless, in 1984, names like Ronald Regan, Phil Gramm, and George H. W. Bush began their campaigns in Texas.
This victory was a gut punch to the Democratic Party, who historically had been the victor in many previous elections. It was at this time the shift from Democrat to Republican started to take shape. Many Democrats in Texas abandoned the party in order to support the victor. It was evident that a shift had taken place. The growth of the Republican Party in Texas continued and so did the downfall of the Democratic Party. According to my source, in 1984 “the Republican Party also gained five seats in congress”, as well as “15 seats in the State Legislature and 107 local offices.” The support for the Republican party was now unprecedented, and was not going away anytime soon. Many Democrats in office at the time retired, creating more room for more Republicans to take their seats. The 1990’s were a booming time for Republicans, as many names won election into legislature. In 1996, the Republican Party gained 4 more seats in the Texas Senate.
They now had the majority that they have not had since Reconstruction. After November of 1998, Republicans were sweeping statewide ballots for years to come, and it was never even close. The first Republican Governor to win back-to-back terms was George W. Bush, and it was by a landslide, 240 votes out of 254. The Republican Party had seemed to reach its peak and the Democrat its rock bottom, however, things got even better for the Republican party on November 7, 2000, when Texas’s own Governor George W. Bush became the 43rd President of the United States. This was huge for the state of Texas and its Republicans, as it was the most honorable position any Republican can attain. Back in Texas over the years during his presidency, the Republican party would continue to sweep statewide ballots, and democrats continued to lose. Texas had completely shifted from a Democratic state to a Republican state now and still today is Texas majority Republican. America is divided through political segregation, and people tend to want to associate themselves with others who view the same beliefs as them.
In Bill Bishops “The Big Sort”, the polarizing of Americans is not something that evolved, it is something that we built. People live in areas where they feel people feel like they do, and many live in areas defined politically. The Big Sort truly convicts “homogeneity” of “[breeding] economic inequality, cultural misunderstanding, political extremism, and legislative gridlock[3].” I have had a first hand experience to this logic growing up as a kid. We moved to this neighborhood a while back, not knowing most of the people there were mainly Democrat. My family being majority Republican, were almost seen as targets in the neighborhood. Now I realize this is probably an extreme case and its not always like this, but when someone eggs your house because you have a sign outside for the Republican party, you feel threatened to voice your opinion and feel like a target. We did our research and sure enough most of this neighborhood and the town were democratic, which seemed rare.
After years of living there and having no friendly neighbors, I was not even able to play with the kids next door, we decided to move to a more “appropriate” location. We are good people, however our neighbors never saw past the political side of us, demonstration a cultural misunderstanding and political extremism. We now keep our political standings a secret in our new neighborhood. It just goes to show how divided we are in America, not just politically, but racially and economically as well. In predominantly poor locations in America, the majority of the population is either black or Hispanic, while whites are mainly middle to upper class citizens.
These places may be the projects around Compton California, to the urban areas of Detroit. White citizens are typically the ones you see with money, why? That is just how America has been for years and years. All these groups tend to separate each other, and you can see it everywhere, even in Texas. Why did Texas shift from Democrat to Republican and how? Well, we have the facts, however I feel like it was more than those facts that ended up shifting Texas into the most Republican state out there. I feel like with Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the slaves in the south and giving them citizenship, it was only a matter of time until Texas turned Republican. With the millions of slaves now freed and most becoming Republican, the majority was sure to shift from Democrat to Republican.
The slaves never wanted to go back to being owned, and the Republican party would make sure that wouldn’t happen with Abraham Lincoln. However, he was assassinated a few days after signing the Emancipation Proclamation, thus giving way to the “Black Codes” and racial discrimination. In the next 130 years or so, Republicans would make bounds of success and eventually become the majority, as the population quickly forced the Democratic party out. Like I said in the beginning, the history of Partisan politics in Texas is a true rollercoaster of ups and downs. The shift from Democrat to Republican was a real grind, but it was fate that caused it. Texas is now one of the most Republican states in America, and many other states have followed in its place.
The History of Partisan Politics in Texas. (2022, Apr 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-history-of-partisan-politics-in-texas-essay
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