Texas Politics & Government: Ideas and Institutions

  Perhaps the greatest disappointment for Texas Democrats in 2020 was the failure to win control of the Texas House. In 2018, Texas took twelve seats that had been in Republicans’ hands. That put Texas Democrats within nine seats of winning a majority in the 150 member Texas House. Since the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senator had carried several Texas House districts in his bid to unseat Republican Senator Ted Cruz, Democrats felt energized. Professor Mark Jones, writing for the Rice University Institute for Texas Politics, listed six Texas House Districts as toss ups: Shaheen (R-HD 66), Leach (R-HD 67), open seats in HD 92 & HD 96, Button (R-HD 112), and Davis (R-HD 134). The so-called Beto Nine included Davis (R-HD 134), Meyer (R-HD 108), Button (R-HD 112), Bohac (R-HD 138, Shaheen (R-HD 66), Leach (R-HD67), Miller (R-HD 26), and Stucky (R-HD 64). In addition to the Beto Nine districts, Democrats targeted thirteen House Districts that Beto lost by ten percent or less i...

In the presidential contest in 2020, Texas was considered a swing state. According to 270 to win ( https://www.270towin.com/2020-polls-biden-trump/ ), the average of six polls conducted through November 2, 2020 showed Trump with a slim 1.3 percent advantage: Many analyses placed blame on poor polling, Trump supporters misleading pollsters, and other reasons that deemed Texas’ division between Democrats and Republicans closer than it actually was. The final results show Trump winning Texas with 52.2 percent of the vote to Biden’s 46.4 percent. The 5.8 percent difference showed that Texas was indeed competitive. What differences in the campaign would have resulted in a Biden win in Texas? The most common analysis maintains that Texas nothing would have helped because Texas remains a “Red State” with a majority of voters preferring the policies and programs supported by the Republican Party of Texas and its candidates. Others have noted that Texas is divided among the Democratic ur...