Politics of Texas

For approximately 100 years, from after Reconstruction until the 1990s, the Democratic Party dominated Texas politics. After renewed competition from the Populist Party in the late 19th century and loss of a Congressional seat in 1896 and 1898 to a Republican elected by a plurality, the Democratic Party in Texas ensured its control by disenfranchising most blacks, and many poor whites and Latinos, through imposition of the poll tax in 1901 and white primaries, similar to other former Confederate states. These exclusions lasted until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-1960s.

In a reversal of alignments, since the late 1960s the Republican Party has grown more prominent within the state based on an influx of primarily white voters (the majority in the state) from the Democratic Party. By the mid-1990s, it became the state's dominant political party. This trend mirrors a national political realignment that has seen the once solidly "Dixiecrat" Democratic South, initially dependent on disfranchisement of minorities, become increasingly dominated by Republicans. But growth among the Hispanic or Latino population in Texas, whose voters favor the Democratic Party, may shift party alignments in the long term.

The 19th-century culture of the state was heavily influenced by the plantation culture of the Old South, dependent on African-American slave labor, as well as the patron system once prevalent (and still somewhat present) in northern Mexico and South Texas. In these societies the government's primary role was seen as being the preservation of social order. Solving of individual problems in society was seen as a local problem with the expectation that the individual with wealth should resolve his or her own issues. These influences continue to affect Texas today. In their book, Texas Politics Today 2009-2010, authors Maxwell, Crain, and Santos attribute Texas' traditionally low voter turnout among whites to these influences. But beginning in the early 20th century, voter turnout was dramatically reduced by the state legislature's disenfranchisement of most blacks, and many poor whites and Latinos.

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