Texas Monthly December 2002: Swept Away

WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD of Texas politics. The Republicans have it all now: every statewide office, solid majorities in both houses of the Legislature, and Speaker of the House (although that won't be official until January). Yet that list doesn't come close to capturing the magnitude of the GOP sweep. The Republicans didn't just win; they crushed the Democrats. Not a single statewide race was close. Governor Rick Perry won reelection by eighteen points despite being outspent nearly three to one by Tony Sanchez. Of the 23 swing legislative races, Republicans won 18, most by decisive margins.

The issue for the Democrats is not only who is going to vote for them but who is going to run. The party has no bench.

This is going to be a real problem, there was a lot of recruitment in Harris county and statewide this year and it failed.

A pretty good election analysis could be compressed into eleven words: "There are a heck of a lot of Republicans in Texas."

He concludes that democratic and hispanic power in Texas is at least a generation away. Even the ticket-splitting vote for democrats has fallen to less than 5%