Texas Politics & Government: Ideas and Institutions

 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. S...

 One of the most important concepts in political science is party identification. As it was originally conceived, party identification (PID) was considered a psychological attachment to a political party. It was formed early and not likely to change. The parties were thought to represent different positions on public policy issues of the day. In a sense, it was a logical attachment to a set of ideas, or an ideology. However, both major parties in the United States were not sorted ideologically, since both parties contained liberals, moderates, and conservatives. Currently, the conception of political parties is more a social identity rather than a shorthand for positions on public policies. The acquisition of party identification is also viewed differently. Party identification is not inherited from one's family; it is acquired through a series of social identities held by an individual. The figure demonstrates the process and its possible results: As people have sorted based on so...

 In Red State: An Insider's Story of How the GOP Came to Dominate Texas Politics , Wayne Thorburn describes the transition in Texas from a one-party Democratic state to a two-party state and ending as a one-party Republican state. The transition took decades, from the 1970s to the early 2000s. Over a thirty year span, Republicans came to control all of the statewide offices in Texas, a majority of the Texas congressional delegation, and both chambers of the Texas legislature. Thorburn identifies several factors in the 1970s and 1980s that assisted Republicans in dominating Texas politics and government: (1) John Tower’s senatorial victory in 1961 had consequences for Texas Republicans throughout the 1970s; (2) Liberal Democrats were effective in taking control of the Democratic Party during the 1980s and purging the party of conservative Democrats; (3)  the victory of Bill Clements in the 1978 gubernatorial election over John Hill, the liberal Democrat; and (4) the election o...

  If you're reading this blog to understand voting in the 71 Texas counties that comprise 90 percent of the registered voters in Texas, and you're not depressed yet, then this post should do it for you. Or, like me, you could look for something positive that would mobilize you to make a difference in the 2024 general election. Here are remaining counties. The picture is not pretty! Of the 38 counties in this final group of Texas counties, Beto won only two counties (Maverick County and Starr County). Note that voter turnout in those counties was extremely low; only 28 percent of the registered voters participated in Maverick County and only 32 percent in Starr County. Overall, Abbott won the 38 counties by a margin of 450,054 votes, garnering more than three out of every four votes cast.  Unfortunately, being realistic is necessary when analyzing Democratic prospects in these counties. The only optimism can be found in the possibilities in Bastrop County, where Beto received n...

  As we consider the second group of Texas counties, we should note that Democratic Party candidate Beto O'Rourke won only four of the 23 counties. Overall, Beto lost this set of counties by 483,219 votes. On the other hand, Governor Abbott won 63.6 percent of the two-party vote in the counties.   What do the counties that Beto won indicate for what Democrats can do in 2024 to garner more votes? First, note that voter turnout is extremely low in three (Webb, Hidalgo, and Cameron Counties) of the four counties, averaging 33.5 percent of the vote. In the county that Beto won with the highest percentage of the vote (Webb County), voter turnout was a paltry 31.1 percent of registered voters. Only Hays County featured turnout that exceeded half of the registered voters. Obviously, voter turnout among Democratic Party identifiers who did not vote is the highest priority. Second, among the counties that Abbott won, I would largely ignore those counties where he won with 65 to 80 perc...

  Yesterday, I provided data on 71 Texas counties that comprise 90 percent of the total registered voters in Texas. Today, we'll look at the 10 Texas counties with the largest number of registered voters in terms of votes cast in the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. There are some caveats about the information. First, I used the January 2023 registration figures from the Texas Secretary of State's Web site. The vote for gubernatorial candidates includes only the vote for Republican Greg Abbott and Democrat Beto O'Rourke. There were, of course, votes for others, but the number was insignificant. If you have questions about the sources, let me know. Second, the vote totals are from the Texas Secretary of State's office and are the canvassed vote totals. Third, voter turnout in Texas was disappointing. Here are the results: Notice that the largest segment, more than 9.5 million Texans, were registered voters who did not vote. Aso, another 1.3 million Texans, who were oth...

In a Facebook post, Chris Tackett noted the population of Texas' 254 counties and their voting tendencies. Building on the idea, I created a list of Texas counties with more than 30,000 registered voters (January 2023, Texas Secretary of State ). These 71 Texas counties comprise 90.68 percent of the total registered voters in Texas. Here are the counties, their registered voters, and the percentage that the county provides to the total number of registered voters in Texas. But the number is not equally distributed among the counties. Here’s the distribution: Eighty-one percent of Texas' registered voters are living in just 33 of Texas’ 254 counties. These are the counties where registered non-voters who share Democratic Party tendencies need to be (1) identified, (2) contacted personally, and (3) led (motivated) to vote. It can be done. It should have been started yesterday, and in some counties and some precincts, it is being done. You can do it.  

  The following information is from the ITEP's latest study:  Who Pays? 6th Edition – State-by-State Data – ITEP No state and local tax structure is progressive, but some states have a less regressive tax structure than other states. What makes a state's tax structure less regressive? Here's what the report indicates: A state's tax structure is the method of receiving the funds necessary to provide the state's services.  How much is contributed to the state's coffers is important but who contributes is just as, if not more, important. Pick a state, go to the report by the ITEP, find the state's tax structure, and analyze it. What changes, if any, would you make to the structure?