Wayne Thorburn

Red State (eBook, ePUB)

An Insider's Story of How the GOP Came to Dominate Texas Politics

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

A political scientist and Republican party insider examines how Texas made its dramatic shift from Democratic stronghold to GOP dominance.

In November 1960, the Democratic party dominated Texas. Democrats held all thirty statewide elective positions as well as the entire state legislature. Fifty years later, this stronghold had not only been lost-it had reversed. In November 2010, Republicans controlled every statewide elective office, as well as the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. The state's congressional delegation in Washington was comprised of twenty-five Republicans and nine Democrats.

Red Stateexplores why this transformation took place and what these changes imply for the future of Texas politics. Wayne Thorburn analyzes a wealth of data to show how changes in the state's demographics-including an influx of new residents, the shift from rural to urban, and the growth of the Mexican American population-have moved Texas through three stages of party competition, from two-tiered politics to two-party competition, and then to the return to one-party dominance, this time by Republicans.

Thorburn reveals that the shift from Democratic to Republican governance has been driven not by any change in Texans' ideological perspective or public policy orientation-even when Texans were voting Democrat, conservatives outnumbered liberals or moderates-but by the Republican party's increasing identification with conservatism since 1960.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: University of Texas Press
• Seitenzahl: 310
• Erscheinungstermin: 24. Februar 2022
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780292759220
• Artikelnr.: 63555507

Autorenporträt

WAYNE THORBURN, who holds a PhD in political science, brings a lifetime of political involvement to the task of tracing the transformation of Texas politics since 1960. When Texas elected its first Republican governor in 104 years, he was executive director of the state party. Thorburn was involved in the election of the President George H. W. Bush and then directed the coordinated campaign that in 1996 elected all statewide Republican candidates for the first time. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface and Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
1. Understanding Texas
2. Dividing the State
3. A Century of One-Party Politics
4. Stirrings and Small Cracks
5. Toward a Two-Party Texas
6. The Two-Party Interlude
7. The Era of Republican Dominance
8. The Future of Texas Politics
Bibliography
Index