Texas is a one-party state in America
Most conservative state in the entire union
DALLAS – Republicans have just made it clear: Texas is the most conservative state in the union.
And it will remain a bastion for the brand of conservatism made popular by the culture wars of the last 15 years and former President Donald Trump, unless overwhelmed Democrats challenge for control of the state or become a more effective opposition party.
More than any legislative session in the history of Texas, Democrats were steamrolled by Republicans, who
nearly passed every piece of legislation they wanted.
That was after three quorum breaks, including a 38-day stint that included over 50 Democrats camping out in Washington, D.C., to stall a controversial elections bill.
That bill and nearly everything on the GOP’s list at the red meat counter has been or will be signed into law by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who now has bragging rights over fellow Republican and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
With the Legislature and all the statewide offices controlled by Republicans, along with an electorate that approves of their priorities, Texas is under one-party rule.
If that wasn’t clear in the past, the nation now knows it.
“They have won the crown,” said longtime Republican consultant and lobbyist Bill Miller. “Texas is arguably the most conservative big state in America.”
Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas, said the one-way street known as Texas politics has soured many residents. He said one-party rule stifles debate and gives outsized influenced to the activist wing of the Republican Party.
“When you have one-party dominance and the results show up in public policy, there is going to be a negative impact on the general mood, particularly when that agenda for that party is driven by a decidedly non-mainstream wing of the party,” Henson said.
The Texas Politics Project recently released a poll showing most Texans feel the state is headed in the wrong direction.
Still, the GOP voters who believe the election was stolen from Trump have gotten vindication from Abbott and their Texas lawmakers.
The rest of the state, which includes swaths of apathetic voters, follow along or can do little to stop the onslaught.
The other reality: Most voting Texans approve of the direction Abbott and Republicans are taking the state, despite what recent polls show.
There’s plenty of opposition in the media, along with Democrats and progressives, about what happened in Austin this year. In the past, such outcry has produced electoral victories for Democrats. In 2018 Democrats seized 12 seats held by Republicans and won two congressional races, including Democrat Colin Allred’s defeat of Republican incumbent Pete Sessions in Dallas County’s Congressional District 32.
But Republicans rebounded in 2020, and they don’t appear to be worried about next year’s midterm elections. The national climate almost assures that Republicans will win big in 2022, unless the people in the Lone Star State truly want a political revolution.
The question for now: How do you like your red meat?
Even before the second session, the regular session produced the “heartbeat” bill passed and signed into law by Abbott. It is the most restrictive law in the nation, prohibiting abortions after six weeks, before most abortions occur. The law, which critics say violates the U.S. Constitution, has a vigilante component. Any citizen can sue in court and receive damages from people they suspect of aiding someone getting what is now an illegal abortion.
That law sets the stage for the end of legal abortions in much of America, if the trend started by Texas is picked up by other states.
But the end of a second special legislative session brought with it a cascade of conservative legislation, much of it designed to appease Republican base voters that have an insatiable appetite for legislation that restricts use of medication abortion, embraces gun culture, restricts mail voting, prohibits the teaching of critical race theory and provides funding to erect a wall along the southern border.
There were small but notable new laws as well, including mandating that professional sports teams with state contracts play the National Anthem before sports events. Some Democrats backed that GOP-led bill, a nod to the mood of Texans about patriotism.
Republicans aren’t finished either. An upcoming special session to allow lawmakers to redraw the state’s legislative and congressional boundaries could produce more conservative red meat, including legislation forcing transgender athletes to compete in sports under the gender they were assigned at birth. More elections legislation, perhaps an audit of the 2020 Texas results, is possible.
Republican leaders took turns reveling in their accomplishments.
“The Texas Senate completed one of the greatest weeks for Republican legislation in Texas, and perhaps, American history,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said in a statement Thursday. “These are conservative cornerstones that will keep Texas, Texas…We still have unfinished business to complete on the Fair Sports for Women and Girls Act…I have asked Gov. Abbott to place it on the special session call later this month, and we will pass it again.”
The 2021 legislative sessions is an extended lesson on what we already know. Elections matter.
As disappointing as the 2020 election were for Democrats hoping to seize the Texas House for the first time since 2002, this year’s legislative session was far worse.
Longtime state Sen. Royce West, DDallas, calls it the worst session he’s ever seen.
But he doesn’t blame Republicans for responding to their constituents.
He said he wanted Democrats to remember the pain and disappointment of the sessions and use it as motivation to flip statehouse seats in 2022.
“We need to make sure we’re registering voters and getting them out to vote,” West said. “We need to use some of the hard lessons we’ve learned over these legislative sessions to build coalitions and win at the ballot box.”
It’s a start.