So for over 40 years now, TX has been a red state for the Presidential elections. This last election showed us that even with the country fairly evenly split between Dems and GOP, the GOP got slaughtered in electoral votes. If they ever lose TX, I don't see them ever being able to reclaim the White House.
Originally Posted by RelaxationJunkie
John Tower in the special election kinda cracked the mold ... and as the Texas Democrats predominately were conservative .. Texas was still going for a Republican president while the Democrats maintained a strangle hold on local and statewide politics with a few exceptions in designated metro areas and the Governor's mansion. Once the National Democratic Party was taken over by McGovernites Texas began to split up with independents from the local Democratic Party identifying themselves as such ...
.. keep in mind that the Democratic Party in Texas (and most Southern states) developed out of the Reconstruction period (post Civil War) as a resistance to the forced insertion of Blacks into local governments whether they were qualified or not ... LBJ was a product of those years ... and as he moved into the national scene he mellowed ... if you will.
Some of that "suspicion" of the Republican Party remains .... but the bottom line is that the early Democratic Party was responsible for segregation, poll taxes, etc., along with just about any form of discrimination ... never knew a Klansman, but my guess is there were not many "Republicans" in sheets!
Please remember that George Wallace was a Democrat.