Politics in Texas

Texas has all three political cultures all over the state, but when people outside of

Political culture reflects the political ethics and convictions of people, not only around the United States of America but also all over the world. The people believe that the government is responsible for the type of services (like education, health care, community services, etc.) that they are entitled too; therefore, if the outcome is not good the political system has failed. There are three different political cultures: moral, traditional, and individualist. The State of Texas has a mix from all the cultures; however, traditional and individualist cultures seem to predominate.

Texas is the second most populous state as well as the second largest state in the United States of America (Brown, Langenegger, Garcia, Lewis, & Biles, 2014). With a huge number of people currently calling Texas their home, it would make sense to draw the conclusion that the Texas government must make this state a great place to live by serving its citizens to the best of its abilities. However, it is best not to make assumptions and in order to ascertain whether the local government actually fulfills this role we must look at multiple aspects of the government.

Daniel Elazar created a political culture classification scheme of moralistic, individualistic, and traditionalistic to describe the political cultures of the states.

States’ rights, the fight for the unborn and their right to life, and resistance to gun legislation, tend to be some of the top issues for conservative Texas voters. The last time a Democrat carried the state of Texas was in 1976, when Jimmy Carter won the Presidential election. During the 2004 presidential election, then President and Republican candidate, George W. Bush, won with 61.09% against 38.30% votes for the Democratic candidate John Kerry. However, in the more recent Presidential elections that were held in 2008 and in 2012, the very popular Democratic candidate, Barack Obama, did not win the majority vote for Texas. Thus, looking at this information, it can be said that the state of Texas tends to lean more towards the Republican side.

For decades, the state of Texas was Democratic and then suddenly in 1998 the state flipped to Republican. Currently, Texas is the boldest Republican state in the country. For so long it was Democrat and strongly so but it has been Republican now since the nineties. The big question surrounding this topic is what happened to make it flip suddenly? Well, research provided a very strong answer that I didn’t expect to find. In 1988 two people were voted in that changed everything for Republicans; Kent Hance and Judge Thomas Phillips were the first republicans voted in since the Reconstruction. This kick started a Republican makeover of the state that all through the nineties Texans saw Republicans overtaking Democrats in every area. To understand how this went down in the nineties there must be an examination of the past. The Democratic party was the face of Texas for a century until the Republicans came back stronger than ever.

The first Texas Legislature met in 1846 and has only had a few changes. It is a bicameral legislature that has two chambers which include the Texas Senate, with 31 senators and the House of Representatives, with 151 House members. The responsibility of the legislators includes promoting their constituent’s concerns and issues by addressing them during the sessions.

Over time, Texas has experienced periods of dominance by both the Republican and Democratic parties. Currently, the Republican Party is the more dominant party in Texas, as it is the party that holds the greatest amount of political power. A steadily increasing Texas population, as well as a changing social climate and changing demographics, are all factors that may influence which party will experience the greatest power in the future. In order to determine the role that population, demographics, and social climate will have on party dominance, we must explore both parties, as well as the changes that are occurring in Texas. This paper will discuss the major priorities of the Republican and Democratic Parties and the changes that are

The turning point of Texas began in 1980 when the state started to lean toward the Republican side of things. “In 1980, Texas sided with the Republicans.

It is widely believed that the strongest state level Republican Party is found in the state of Texas. The Republican Party of Texas has control of the senate, the state house of representatives and the state’s education board . Without a doubt, Texas is the strongest Republican state in the nation. Republicans now have majorities in 107 Texas counties that contain nearly two-thirds of the state’s population. Texas own George W. Bush was the 43rd President of the United States. Things haven’t always been so great for Texas Republicans. For over one hundred years, the Republican Party was not a viable force in Texas politics. We were the second party in a one-party state. During that time, the GOP failed to win a single

The state is made up of different sectors all in existence and intertwined each other. The constitution serves many functions in the operations of the government and the life of the people governed. The document houses the rules of the land and the conditions governing the way the various sectors of the economy react and act in a mutual status. The constitution is the key to the viable existence of the people of Texas providing the fundamental rules and laws for the inception and operations of legal laws (Brown et al., 2014). Likewise, the constitution outlines the underlying breakdown of the way the individual powers and limits to the powers in place exist.

The Texas democratic party values opportunity, freedom, fairness, equality and progress. They have fought for civil rights, social security, workers’ rights, voting rights, veterans’ rights, health care, equality immigration reform and women’s rights (“Our Party”). Texas Republican party values strong families, innovative leadership, limited government, personal responsibility and individualism. They have fought to limit government power, create opportunity for all to protect the freedom given by our

As individuals, we turn towards political parties to identify with a group that has the most in common with our own values and principals. Each political party’s agenda focuses on the primary interests affiliated with that party and is motivated to enact its beliefs and interests through legislation by electing officials into government. Texas is a large state with four political parties: Republican, Democratic, Green Party, and Libertarian. Each political party has a basic fundamental ideology and platform on current issues. The two major political parties in Texas and in the nation are the Republican and Democratic parties.Texas is a conservative state where the Republican Party has known success as the leading political party in

This began with Texas and various other southern states creating things such as poll taxes, literacy tests, and White-only primaries in effort to keep African Americans from voting. These minorities lead to a conservative public policy in Texas. If a change is not made in voter turnout, Republicans will seemingly run the polls. Voter turnout in Texas compared to the United States as a whole is seemingly alarming. Texas ranks last out of the 50 states in terms of voter turnout. This is primarily because of Texas’ diverse population. Texas’ population tends to have more Latino citizens than any other state, this correlates with income, a lower income citizen has the tendency to stay home on election day. Thus, those who do vote are the rich, educated, white citizens in comparison to poorer, uneducated, and minority (Newell et al.

Texas is a state that has always been recognized for its size and politics. Elections are a huge part of democratic societies that are intended for citizens to choose their public leaders and approve the policies set by candidates. Political parties and interest groups also play a key role in shaping opportunities for public participation. Most Texans and historians know that the Democratic Party’s historical dominance is important to state politics. It is less likely that people are not aware of the consequences of the one-party system for public participation and democracy in Texas. Like many of the rim South states, the white elitist belonged to the Democratic Party which stemmed from the end of Reconstruction until the late 20th