When was the last time the Texas congressional delegation was this Blue?
November 7, 2018 8:35 AM Subscribe
Democrats picked up several congressional seats in Texas, making the next congressional delegation from Texas noticeably bluer than the current one. When was the last time Texas sent this many Democrats to the House of Representatives? (Secondary question: is there an easy way to figure this out?)
Expanding upon the fact that prior Democrats weren't as progressive as the current representatives, I'll cross-link my comment from the recent election thread to note that the party affiliations changed over time, most markedly with the 1964 presidential candidacy of conservative Republican Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Looking back, it was the Democrats who held much of the positions we consider to be so staunchly Republican now, from white Democrats using a variety of tactics to reduce voting by African Americans and poor whites in 1890.
More recently, in the 1948 election, after Harry Truman signed an Executive Order to desegregate the Army, a group of conservative Southern Democrats known as Dixiecrats split from the Democratic Party in reaction to the inclusion of a civil rights plank in the party's platform.
And a decade plus later, after the Democrat George Wallace was elected as Governor of Alabama, he emphasized the connection between states' rights and segregation, both in speeches and by creating crises to provoke federal intervention. He opposed integration at the University of Alabama and collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan in 1963 in disrupting court-ordered integration of public schools in Birmingham.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:44 AM on November 7, 2018
More recently, in the 1948 election, after Harry Truman signed an Executive Order to desegregate the Army, a group of conservative Southern Democrats known as Dixiecrats split from the Democratic Party in reaction to the inclusion of a civil rights plank in the party's platform.
And a decade plus later, after the Democrat George Wallace was elected as Governor of Alabama, he emphasized the connection between states' rights and segregation, both in speeches and by creating crises to provoke federal intervention. He opposed integration at the University of Alabama and collaborated with the Ku Klux Klan in 1963 in disrupting court-ordered integration of public schools in Birmingham.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:44 AM on November 7, 2018
Response by poster: Guys, you can just assume that I understand that parties change culture over time. It's a simple historical record question I'm trying to answer.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:51 AM on November 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by Pater Aletheias at 10:51 AM on November 7, 2018 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: And, if I'm doing my math right, the answer is 2009. Texas had 13 Dems out of 36 seats then, just as they will in 2019. It's a tie with the delegation of a decade ago. If you go back to the 108th Congress, 2003-2005, Texas sent 17 Dems out of 36 seats, a substantially higher number. Thanks, JPD, for the Wiki link. That did it.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:08 AM on November 7, 2018
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:08 AM on November 7, 2018
Response by poster: (Correction: Texas had four fewer seats in '09, so sent more Democrats as a percentage of seats.)
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:11 AM on November 7, 2018
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:11 AM on November 7, 2018
FWIW, there were several unexpectedly close Dem losses this time. You might expect a few more pickups in 2020.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:06 PM on November 7, 2018
posted by Chrysostom at 9:06 PM on November 7, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
Texas Congressional Delegations
The answer is not as long ago as you think, just given that most of the south was blue a generation ago - even if those democrats weren't especially progressive.
posted by JPD at 8:45 AM on November 7, 2018 [1 favorite]