How Liberal or Conservative are Democratic and Republican House Members

 Shortly after the end of the 88th Legislature's regular session, The Texas Tribune posted charts depicting the Democratic and Republican House members DW-Nominate scores for contested votes during the regular session. The charts indicate a liberal Democratic Party and a moderate Republican Party. Let's compare the two parties in terms of their members:

First, the Republican Party:

The Republicans range from conservative to somewhat liberal in their DW-Nominate scores. Any score greater than zero (a positive score) is conservative; any score less than zero (a negative score) is liberal.

The most conservative Republican is Jared Patterson at 0.454, followed by Briscoe Cain, Cody Vasut, Steve Toth, and Tony Tinderholt. The mean for all Republicans is -0.08, and the median is 0.00, which means that half of Republicans are above 0.00, and half are below 0.00. The most liberal Republican is J.M. Lozano at-0.61, followed by Morgan Meyer, Todd Hunter, Charlie Geren, and John Raney.

Second, the Democrats:

Democrats range from very liberal to somewhat liberal in terms of their DW-Nominate scores. The most liberal Democrat is Ana-Maria Ramos at -2.11, followed by Christina Morales, Gene Wu, Vikki Goodwin, and Jessica Gonzalez. The mean for Democrats is -1.56, and the median is -0.03. The least liberal Democrat is Richard Pena Ramond at -0.96, followed by Terry Canales, Tracy King, Oscar Longoria, and Bobby Guerra. 

The difference between the Republican mean and the Democratic mean is 1.48. There is no doubt that the two parties are polarized with Democrats more extreme than Republicans in terms of the members' DW-Nominate scores.