Republican Party of Texas - History

History

Since the days of Reconstruction, the Republican Party of Texas went through over 100 years of being a minority party in the state. In 1870, Edmund Davis was elected Governor, but was soundly defeated in 1874. In the year 1876, Republicans had made gradual gains in Texas, earning nearly one-third of the statewide vote and electing a small number of candidates to the State Legislature (including several African-Americans). However, by the turn of the century, the Republican Party all but disappeared from Texas with the passage of poll taxes that many poor Texans could not afford to pay. The first Republican statewide primary was held in 1926, but drew only 15,239 voters. By contrast, the Democrat primary in the same year drew 821,234 voters. Only two more Republican primaries would be attempted in the next thirty-four years.

The first signs of life in the modern Republican Party of Texas occurred after U.S. Senator Lyndon B. Johnson was elected Vice-President in 1960, when Texas Republicans claimed their first U.S. Senate victory with the election of John Tower in a special election held in May 1961. Tower would serve in this position until his retirement in 1985. In 1966, two Republicans were elected to the US House of Representatives, including future President George H.W. Bush for the first time since Reconstruction, three Republicans were elected to the Texas House of Representatives and one Republican was elected to the Texas Senate. By 1972, Texas Republicans had made gains to 17 members of the Texas Legislature and 3 members of the Texas Senate.

The true turning point for Texas Republicans occurred in the May 1976 primary, when Ronald Reagan defeated Gerald Ford by a two to one margin in the state's presidential primary. According to former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, due to Reagan's victory in the Texas primary, "the whole shape and nature of the state changed."

104 years after the last Republican governor, Bill Clements eked out a narrow victory in November 1978. Together, Clements and Tower combined their organizational skills to continue building the RPT and started laying the groundwork for future growth. In 1984, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Phil Gramm led a GOP ticket that heavily relied upon the RPT to provide a centralized network of communications. Throughout the rest of the decade, the total Republican vote continued to increase and the party made large gains in both the state legislature and in local races.

Since 1994, every statewide elected office has been held by a Republican. Furthermore, both houses of the Texas Legislature feature Republican majorities. In the State House, Republicans hold a supermajority of 101 Republican representatives in the 150-member body, and in the Texas Senate, Republicans hold 19 of 31 seats. Both houses are officially organized on a bipartisan basis, with both Republicans and Democrats holding committee chairs.

At the federal level, the Texas Congressional delegation is currently composed of 23 Republicans and 9 Democrats and both of its US Senators are Republican. The last time Texas was carried by a Democratic presidential candidate was in 1976.

In its 2012 platform, the Republican Party of Texas rejected the teaching of "Higher Order Thinking Skills... critical thinking skills and similar programs," giving as a reason that this sort of teaching has "the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority." Media ridicule led to a response from RPT Communications Director Chris Elam that the inclusion of the term "critical thinking skills" was an oversight which cannot be corrected until 2014, when the next state convention will occur.