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by hindsightbias 2000 days ago
Texas was strongly democratic until a lot of folks from the Bible Belt watched too much Dallas on TV and moved in.

The demos have to change a lot in a lot of districts to overcome Gerrymandering for state and federal House representatives. Power isn't in the Governorship, the Lt. Governor controls the state Senate, budget and sits on the redistricting commission. They are elected from the state Senate members.

So TX could have a Democratic Governor and Senators but the local stuff will be red for a long time.

3 comments

> Texas was strongly democratic until a lot of folks from the Bible Belt watched too much Dallas on TV and moved in.

This reveals a tremendous lack of understanding of Texas politics.

Those Democrats are the Republicans today. Rick Perry, yes, that Rick Perry, was a Democrat.

By "local stuff" I guess you mean small rural counties?

All of Texas' major cities vote blue.

All the districted state & federal elected offices. Cities don't matter in those elections because they're all Gerrymandered not to.

Travis County (Austin) is carved into 5 congressional districts.

https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2018-10-05/congressiona...

Not all. Lubbock and Ft. Worth are red through and through.
Fort Worth (or Tarrant county maybe, I forget) majority voted for a democratic president for the first time in a long time. Demographics are slowly shifting there (and for those looking for that old Austin feel, it has a lot of it these days).
If you define blue/red by the presidential vote, then the parent is correct. Every major city voted biden this cycle.
> They are elected from the state Senate members.

In context, I think your "they" refers to the lieutenant governor? That position is elected by the people of Texas, not (state) senators.