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As is the case with most aspects of society, history has played an important role in the way political parties function in present day Texas. ... Through an analysis of this history of political parties in the state of Texas, the current status of political parties and the results of the state’s latest election can be explained. Through an account of the history of the state all confusion about why Texas votes the way it does will be eliminated and a picture of Texas party politics will become crystal clear. In the following paragraphs a picture of Texas before the Civil War will be given, followed by the effects that the War had on the state political system, and finally, and most importantly, how this has shaped the current situation and the 2000 election results within the state.
Texas party politics have followed a path similar to the one that many southern U. ... Before the Civil War Texas was a state that had fair competition between the two, and for a while three, parties. ... As a result, like much of the South, Texas became a state dominated by one party around this time. ... Texas was no exception and, beginning in the 1850s, this state “was a one party dominion”# that would last for nearly one hundred years. ... Like the rest of the country, the New Deal Realignment caused more people to vote democratically in the state of Texas. ... In fact, it was not until the 1960s that Texas began to see an increase in party competition, but some form of party parity was not evident until the 1990s. ... Because the parties reversed their roles, the Democrats were the party of racial equality now, many Texas Democrats returned to the Republican party. As Appleton and Ward mention in their collection of state party profiles “had the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act not fractured the Democratic party, its dominance would have prevailed in Texas a while longer.”# Texas’s history sets the stage for how the state operates today and by looking at the characteristics of the electorate, one can see how Texas made such an easy transition from a state dominated by the Democratic party to a more competitive, and some would now say a more Republican state.
Texas was able to switch from a one-party system of Democratic loyalty to a two-party system with Republican tendencies for two reasons. ... There were also two reasons specific to Texas that created opportunities for Republicans to gain a large number of voters. One was the tremendous amount of people migrating to Texas from the North, most of whom were Republicans. ... As will become apparent when looking at the election results from this year this continues to be the trend, and Texas may again be moving towards a system of one-party dominance, but this time in favor of the Republican party.
As the indicators reveal Texas politics has been trending towards a Republican preference. ... Bush was reelected as the Governor creating the first Governor to serve consecutive terms in Texas. ... Stefan Haag, in his book, Texas Politics and Government: Ideas, Institutions, and Policies attributes much of the recent swing in power to these party organizations within the state. ... ”# While both parties in the state of Texas have considerable complexity, the Republican party has an edge in terms of a party’s ability to perform the necessary party-building functions.
Approximate Word count = 2842
Approximate Pages = 11.4
(250 words per page double spaced)
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