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The role of local government took on newfound importance during the coronavirus pandemic of 2020. Texans looked to their mayors, city councilmen, county judges, and their governor for information on public health, statewide stay-at-home orders, the growing economic crisis and unemployment benefits, and the reopening of Texas businesses.

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3

W H Y T E X A S ’ S G OV E R N M E N T M AT T E R S The history of American gov- ernment in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries is one of an expanding and centralizing nation. International conflicts, economic crises, and movements for social and economic quality have tended to increase the power of the national government. By the early twenty-first century, interest in state and local politics had decreased significantly. This all changed in 2020, when a global health crisis

pushed state and local governments to the forefront of American political life. On January 7, 2020, Chinese officials identified a new coronavirus, COVID-19, and by January 20, cases were

being reported in Thailand, Japan, and South Korea. The next day, the first case of COVID-19 was identified in Washington state. As the virus spread across the United States and the world, investors became concerned, and the stock market began to drop. By the end of February, the Trump administration announced travel restrictions on China and Iran and warnings on travel to Italy and South Korea. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. By the end of March, stay-at-home orders and suspensions of nonessential business caused national unemployment to rise at a phenomenal rate. And, most importantly, people were becoming seriously ill with the virus, and many were dying. While citizens expected the federal government to act swiftly in response to the virus, the Trump administration left many responsibilities to states and localities.

In the early stages of the pandemic in Texas, the responses of public officials were decidedly mixed. Per - haps the boldest and most courageous response to the emergency came from Travis County judge Sarah Eck - hardt and Austin mayor Steve Adler. The popular international music and culture festival South by Southwest, with a combined attendance of 417,000 generating $356 million for the city’s economy,1 was scheduled for mid- March. Officials were facing pressure to cancel the event from attendees, performers, sponsors, and vendors despite the fact that at the time there were only a small number of cases in Texas. Eckhardt and Adler cancelled the event, and by early April, the wisdom of this early action by proactive local officials was clear: going ahead with South by Southwest would likely have led to a health care disaster.

Other county judges and city mayors declared health emergencies, cancelling major events, like Houston’s Livestock Show and Rodeo, a huge event for the local economy. Counties throughout the state imposed shelter-in-place or stay-at-home orders throughout the spring, trying to slow the spread of the virus.

The Political Culture, People, and Economy of Texas

1

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Governor Abbott, usually skeptical of policy making at the local level, deferred to those officials for several weeks rather than imposing a statewide shelter-in- place restriction. Abbott had taken other measures to deal with the virus, such as closing gyms, bars, and restaurant dining areas. He had required 14-day self- quarantines for air travelers from virus hot spots and he imposed self-quarantines on road travelers from Louisiana.2 He had, however, been unwilling to take the major step of closing nonessential businesses in the state. Abbott argued that many parts of the state had not been affected by the virus, but it also seems that Abbott did not want to be the person responsible for harming business inte r - ests unless absolutely necessary. President Trump’s extension of social distanc- ing guidelines on March 29 gave both Abbott and other governors the political cover to take drastic statewide action.

While some officials acted swiftly and decisively, there were also some signif - icant failures in state and local responses to the pandemic. The Texas Workforce Commission was woefully unprepared for the economic shutdown. Phone lines were jammed with applicants seeking to apply unemployment compensation. Local food banks began running low on food to distribute to people who had lost their jobs. Public schools and local libraries were closed throughout the state and many low-income students lost access to free lunches and the internet. Throughout the early spring, fear grew that if the spread of the coronavirus was not stopped, the entire public health care system might be overwhelmed.

State and local governments in Texas (and across the nation) emerged at the center of the coronavirus crisis, sometimes as a source of innovation and lead- ership, sometimes as an example of ineptitude and failure. The life and liveli- hood of every Texan were literally in the hands of these local officials.

Texas’s political culture has traditionally stressed limited government, free markets, and personal responsibility in the making of public policy. In light of the coronavirus pandemic, state leaders may have to rethink their assumptions about how to govern a large, dynamic state like Texas, especially in times of crisis. Whether or not politics in Texas change after the coronavirus pandemic, one thing is clear: Texas government matters, perhaps now more than ever.

CHAPTERGOALS

• Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas (pp. 5–7)

• Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture (pp. 7–12)

• Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy (pp. 12–21)

• Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time (pp. 21–29)

• Describe Texas’s shift from a rural society to an urban one (pp. 29–35)

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5T E X A S P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E

Texas Political Culture

Political scientists have long recognized the importance of political culture, that is, the broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should function and politics should operate. American political culture is traditionally viewed as empha- sizing the values of liberty, equality, and democracy. These terms have meant a variety of things to Americans in different times and places.

States often exhibit a distinctive political culture that is the “product of their entire history.”3 Presumably the political culture of a state has an effect on how people par- ticipate in politics and how individuals and institutions interact.4 Often, Texas is catego- rized as having a “traditionalistic individualistic” political culture in which deference is shown to political elites by the masses and hard work and self-interest are valued as core virtues in the economic life of the state.5 Taxes are kept low, and social services are minimized. Political elites, such as business leaders, have a major voice in how the state is run. In spite of the difficulty in measuring this concept of “traditionalistic individual- istic” political culture in any empirical way, it is widely regarded as useful in explaining fundamental beliefs about the state and the role of state government.

The political culture of Texas can change over time, and it is difficult to classify the political culture of a state as large and as diverse as Texas in any one category. The liberal cultural norms of urban areas such as Houston, Dallas, and Austin often stand in sharp con- trast to those found in the conservative suburban (places outside a city) and exurban (places beyond the suburbs) areas of these cities. These, too, differ from the political cul- tures found in south Texas along the border or in the rural Panhandle of west Texas. In fact, Texas has many different political cultures or subcultures.6

This chapter will investigate the economic, social, and demographic changes that transformed Texas’s political culture during the twentieth century and have continued to shape it in the second decade of the twenty-first century. To understand the complex- ity of political culture in Texas today, it is useful to consider three long-lasting patterns in Texas politics and the changes that they are undergoing: the one-party state, the idea of provincialism, and business dominance.

One-Party Dominance For over 100 years, Texas was dominated by the Democratic Party. Winning the Demo- cratic primary was tantamount to winning the general election. The pattern was broken in 1978 when Republican William Clements first won the governorship to the surprise of many, and again in 1986 when he won his second term. During the 1990s, substantial competition also emerged between the parties for control of the state legislature. Fol- lowing redistricting in 2002 the Republicans secured a 7-vote majority in the state Sen- ate and a 24-vote majority in the state House. They continued to expand these majorities for the next 15 years. Between 2002 and 2020 all major statewide elected offices were

Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas

political culture broadly shared values, beliefs, and attitudes about how the government should function and politics should operate; American political culture emphasizes the values of liberty, equality, and democracy

“traditionalistic individualistic” political culture the belief that government should be dominated by political elites and guided by tradition, influenced by the culture of the South, combined with the belief that government should limit its role in providing order in society so that citizens can pursue their economic self- interest, influenced by the culture of the mid-Atlantic states

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controlled by Republicans. (One Court of Criminal Appeals justice switched to the Dem- ocratic Party in December 2013 after being elected as a Republican, but was defeated in the November 2016 general elections.) Few observers doubt that Republicans and con- servative values will continue to dominate state politics in the near future. But changes are in the wind. A powerful Republican Party controls most suburban, exurban, and rural areas and has grown increasingly conservative and divided. Moderate pro-business Republicans have begun to clash with a strident group of cultural conservatives champi- oning such issues as traditional marriage, border security, and school choice. The Demo- cratic Party that controls Texas cities has become a party of liberal Whites and people of color seeking to promote a progressive agenda emphasizing pro-choice, LGBTQ rights, and public education. Democrats see in the expanding young Latino population a route back into political prominence. It may be difficult to predict the full impact of these changes on the “traditionalistic individualistic” political culture in Texas. But impact it they will.

Provincialism A second pattern that once defined Texas political culture is provincialism, a narrow view of the world that is often associated with rural values and belief in limited govern- ment. The result often was an intolerance of diversity and a concept of the public inter-

est that dismissed social services and expenditures for education. Some of the more popular politicians in Texas in the past have espoused such attitudes, along with corn pone—a rural rejection of the cosmopolitanism found in large urban areas. Racism and intolerance of other cul- tures played important roles in defining provincialism in the traditional Texas political culture. Increasing urban- ization, the growing influence of minorities, women, and LGBTQ people in politics, and the state’s rising impor- tance in the global economy have undercut some of Texas’s traditional provincialism. But recent episodes of intoler- ance toward transgender individuals, minority religious groups, and new immi grants from Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America show a resurgence in some of the val- ues associated with provincialism in Texas, at least in some parts of the population.

Business Dominance A third pattern that defined Texas’s political culture is its longtime dominance by busi- ness. Business groups are the major players in Texas politics, in terms of campaign con- tributions, organized interest groups, and lobbyists. The concerns and values of business groups continue to shape political culture in Texas today. Increasingly, business inter- ests are not limited to state and local business concerns but include national and inter- national business concerns as well. National and international corporations are often more cosmopolitan in their orientation than traditional Texas business interests, having to be concerned with workers and customers living outside Texas. Business influence is

provincialism a narrow, limited, and self-interested view of the world often associated with rural values and notions of limited government

PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY: WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

• Do you agree with the popular myth that Texas is overly provincial—that is, intolerant, narrow minded, and overly critical of government? Do you think that there has been a resurgence of provincialism in recent years?

• What are the economic and political consequences of provincialism in modern America? What do you think government and the people should do to foster more open- mindedness in Texas?

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being challenged by a powerful social conservative wing in the Republican Party that is less concerned with business interests than expanding gun owner rights and curtailing abortion, immigration, and LGBTQ rights.

The Land

Much of Texas’s history and political life has been shaped by its land. When Texas became a republic in 1836, it claimed 216,000,000 acres (approximately 350,000 square miles) of unappropriated land as its own. At its founding, Texas was land rich but money poor, having only $55.68 in its treasury. Texas was the only state other than the origi- nal 13 colonies to keep control of its public lands when it entered the Union, in 1845. Privatizing these public lands was probably the most important ongoing public policy pursued by the state in the nineteenth century. Privatization of public property estab- lished the property rules and regulations under which economic development would take place in the state. And although Texas turned a large portion of its public lands over to private ownership, it retained ownership of the minerals under some of this land, including land containing oil and natural gas. This would provide funding for elemen- tary and secondary education as well as higher education for the next 160 years.

Privatization was not the only political issue surrounding land in Texas in the nine- teenth century. The exact boundaries of Texas were contentious throughout the 1840s and 1850s. Following the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in

Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture

Ties between business and politics have always been close in Texas. Here, Governor Greg Abbott signs a bill allowing craft breweries in Texas to sell their goods directly to customers.

privatization of public property the act(s) by which Texas gave public land owned by the state over to private individuals for cultivation and development

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CITIZEN’S GUIDE

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Confederate Monuments in Texas

1 Why removing Confederate monuments and symbols matters

Historical memory plays an important role in political cul - ture. Con struct ing and building historical memory can bring the people of a state together. But it can also divide those very people when disagreements emerge as to what should be remembered, and how.

For over 150 years, the memory of  Texas’s participation in the Confederacy has been an important element of  Texas’s political culture. Secession drove pro-Union governor Sam Houston from office in 1861. Although there were pockets of pro-Union sentiment in the state, the large majority of (White) Texans supported secession and the Confederacy. Almost 90,000 Texans served for the Confederacy during the Civil War, and 24,000 were killed or wounded.

Following the Civil War, numerous histories about the “Lost Cause”—the idea that the fight for secession was a legendary and heroic but, ultimately, doomed cause—were written celebrating the bravery and patriotism of  Texans dur- ing the war. Counties, towns, schools, and highways were named after prominent Con federates. Historical markers identifying important Civil War events were placed around the state. The state capitol itself included a portrait of the president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, in the Senate Chamber. In addition, the notorious “Children of the Con- federacy Creed” monument, erected in 1959 and located in a corridor of the first floor of the capitol, read: “The war between the states was not a rebellion nor was its underly- ing cause to sustain slavery.”

2 What’s the debate? The cultural consensus about Texas and the Civil War unraveled throughout the civil rights revolution of the 1960s. African Americans, Latinos, and liberal Democrats began calling for a new awareness of Texas’s historical memory, particularly about the legacy of the Civil War, Reconstruc- tion and its aftermath, and the pre-1965 segregation era that had effectively removed African Americans from participat- ing in state and local politics. The myth of the Confederacy and Texas’s place in it distorted the past and caused harm

in the present. Many of the monuments had been erected between 1900 and 1940 not just to remem ber the past, but to celebrate the White community that had triumphed in Texas following the Civil War.

Accompanying this new historical awareness was a demand for new monuments and paintings celebrating the lives and action of Texans who had been marginalized in the past. In the twenty-first century, new monuments were built on the capitol grounds and across Texas commemo- rating Texas African Americans and Tejanos.

But there were problems in Texas’s historical memory that simply adding new memorials couldn’t resolve. Afri can American children were attending schools named after Confederate heroes who had died supporting the institu - tion of slavery. People encountered statues every day that many saw as wrong historically and out of touch with the values of current Texans. After considerable commotion, the “Children of the Confederacy Creed” memorial was taken down in 2019 from the capitol corridor.

Who should have the power to remove, modify, or relocate Confederate monuments and memorials in the state? Should the state develop uniform policies governing all monuments, memorials, or building names, or should localities be empowered to build a his torical memory that reflects local political sensibilities?

In 2019, the power of monument removal or modifica- tion on state property rested with the legislature, the Texas Historical Commission, and the State Preservation Board and with appropriate county, city, and school board juris - diction locally. In 2019, the Texas Senate passed a bill that would have created new rules forbidding the removal of any monument or memorial on state and local property over 40 years old and providing for additional guidelines for assuring historical accuracy of monuments under 40 years old. The bill passed through committee in the House but died in the Calendars Committee. The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in the spring of 2020 spurred protests in cities across the nation and rekindled the debate over Confederate monuments in public places in Texas cit- ies. There is a good chance that the debate over replacing these monuments will be an important one during the 2021 legislative session.

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3 What do the numbers say? Monuments celebrating the Confederacy in Texas were built at different rates over the last 100 years, reflecting changing public sentiment about race relations. The major - ity of monuments were erected between 1900 and 1939. This era followed the removal of African Americans from the voting rolls and the intense segregation of public facil- ities and schools in Texas. In contrast, between 1970 and 2015, the decades following the full implementation of civil rights and voting rights protections for all Texans, only seven were built. Since 2015, more Confederate symbols and monuments have been removed in Texas than in any other state. Between 2014 and 2018, 33 monuments, stat- ues, or symbols were removed. Calls emerged for more removals, but these calls were countered by Republicans in the legislature of more conservative inclinations who felt that removing monuments was an attempt to deny the past or to rewrite it incorrectly. There remain approximately 200 monuments or symbols of the Confederacy found in Texas public spaces, including monuments, highways, schools, and counties.

In 2017 the city of Dallas removed a statue commemorating Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

WanT To LEarn MorE?

• Texas Historical Commission. Texas in the Civil War: Stories of Sacrifice, Valor, and Hope. Austin: 2013.

• Baylor University, “The Civil War and Texas: A Guide to Manuscript Collections in the Texas Collection.” www.baylor.edu/lib/texas/index .php?id=870271.

• Southern Poverty Law Center. Whose Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy. 2nd ed. February 1, 2019.  www.splcenter.org/20190201/whose-heritage -public-symbols-confederacy.

Dedication of Confederate Symbols in Texas by Year

YEar dEdiCaTEd nuMbEr

Pre-1880 12

1880–99 15

1900–39 93

1940–69 29

1970–2015 7

Unknown 92

Communicating Effectively: What Do You Think?

• Do you believe that Confederate monuments are a problem and should be removed from public places?

• Who should decide what monuments remain in their public spaces—local governments or the state? Should local governments be able to decide what monuments remain in their public spaces?

• Does it make sense to allow any statue or monument to remain in place if it is over 40 years old?

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1848 established the Rio Grande as the southern border of the state. After Texas threat- ened to use military force to reassert its land claims in the west, the Compromise of 1850 established Texas’s current western borders. In exchange for $10 million in federal bonds, Texas gave up claims to 67,000,000 acres of land in what are now New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The Compromise of 1850 enabled Texas to pay off the public debts incurred during the Republic and to retain 98,000,000 acres in public lands.7

Today, Texas is the second-largest state, next to Alaska, and its size is perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of its geography. To understand the dynamics of political life and governance in Texas demands an appreciation of the vast spaces and topography that define the state. The longest straight-line distance across the state from north to south is 801 miles; the longest east–west distance is 773 miles. To put this into perspec- tive, the north–south distance between New York City and Charleston, South Carolina, is 763 miles, cutting across seven different states. The east–west distance between New York City and Chicago is 821 miles, cutting across six different states.

Distances alone, though, do not tell the whole story of the state’s diverse geography. There are four distinct physical regions in Texas (Figure 1.1)8 whose distinctive features have shaped its politics.

The Gulf Coastal Plains The Gulf Coastal Plains extend from the Louisiana border and the Gulf of Mexico, along the Rio Grande up to Del Rio, and northward to the line of the Balcones Fault and Escarp- ment. As one moves westward, the climate becomes increasingly dry. Forests become less frequent as post oak trees dominate the landscape until they too are replaced by the prairies and brushlands of central Texas.

The eastern portion of the Gulf Coastal Plains—so-called east Texas—is hilly and covered by forests of pine and hardwoods. Almost all of Texas’s timber production takes place here, which is also the home of some of the state’s most famous oilfields. To the west is the Blackland Belt. Rolling prairie soil made the Blackland Belt a prime farm- ing area, especially for cotton, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Today, it is the most densely populated area of the state and has a diversified economy.

The Coastal Prairies around Houston and Beaumont were the center of the state’s post–World War II industrial boom, particularly in the petrochemical industry. Winter vegetable and fruit production plays a major role in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, while livestock is important in the Rio Grande Plain.

Texas’s political life grew out of the Gulf Coastal Plains. The land grants offered to Americans willing to come to Texas in the first half of the nineteenth century were in this region, which was the birthplace of plantation slavery and, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, of Jim Crow segregation in the state. East Texas also saw the first oil booms in Texas in the early decades of the twentieth century. The Dallas–Fort Worth area in the northwestern part of this region was once a bastion of a small Republican Party. A union movement grew out of the industrialized areas along the coast, provid- ing support to a liberal wing of the Democratic Party. For the most part, though, the Gulf Coastal Plains were dominated by rural conservative values, whether in the Demo- cratic Party (from the end of Reconstruction in 1876 to the early 1990s) or the Republi-

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11T H E L A N D

can Party (from the 1990s to today). Urbanization and suburbanization in Houston and Dallas have added new dimensions to the political life of this region. In the twenty-first century, urban areas have become increasingly Democratic, while suburban areas have become more Republican.

The Interior Lowlands The Interior Lowlands are an extension of the lowlands that run south from Canada through the Midwest. Extending west from Fort Worth, the Interior Lowlands have a predominantly agricultural economy and rural population. In the western portion, which rises from 750 to 2,000 feet in elevation, the West Texas Rolling Plains contain much level, cultivable land, along with a large cattle-raising industry. Many of the state’s largest ranches are located here. Like other rural areas of Texas today, this region is dominated by conservative politics and the Republican Party.

BASIN

and

RANGE

PROVINCE

G R

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T

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I N T

E R

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SP L

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N S

Upper Rio

Grande Valley

Davis Mtns.

Guadalupe Mtns.

N

E scarpm

ent

Caprock

Toyah BasinEl Paso

Big Bend

Llano Basin

30 miles

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E . C

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ss T

im b er

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NORTH CENTRAL

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Balcones B

la ck

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t P

o st

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Bl ac

kla nd

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rai rie

s

Rio Grande Plain

Lower Rio GrandeValley

Pine Belt

Faul t

Edwards PlateauStockton

Plateau

Fort Worth

Dallas

Austin

San Antonio

Houston

The Physical Regions of Texas SOURCE: Dallas Morning News, Texas Almanac 2000–2001 (Dallas: Dallas Morning News, 1999), p. 55.

FIGURE 1.1

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The Great Plains The Great Plains define the terrain in much of western Texas. The major city on the northern plains is Amarillo. Ranching and petroleum production dominate the econ- omy. Farther to the south, the economy centers on agriculture and cotton production, with Lubbock as the major city. Large-scale irrigation from underwater reservoirs, par- ticularly the Ogallala Aquifer, has played a major role in the economic development of this region. The aquifer is being pumped out faster than it is being replenished, however, raising questions about the viability of basing future growth on current irrigation prac- tices. We will return to a discussion of the problem of aquifer depletion in Chapter 14.

As in east Texas and the Interior Lowlands, conservative political values have a home in the Great Plains. Although politicians from this area have played a major role in Texas government over the last 100 years, their power has been ebbing in the face of the expanding population of urban areas elsewhere.

The Basin and Range Province In the Basin and Range Province, one finds Texas’s mountains in the Guadalupe Range along the border with New Mexico, including Guadalupe Peak (8,749 feet) and El Capi- tan (8,085 feet). To the southeast is Big Bend country, so named because the Rio Grande surrounds it on three sides as the river makes its southward swing. Rainfall and popula- tion are sparse in this region.

The area along the Mexican border, running from the Basin and Range Province through the southern Great Plains and Gulf Coastal Plains to the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf of Mexico, has always had a distinctive political culture, dominated by the economic and demographic connections between Texas and Mexico. The population in this region is overwhelmingly Latino. In the twenty-first century, the Border region, including the cities of El Paso, McAllen, and Brownsville, has remained a Democratic Party stronghold.

Economic Change in Texas

Over the last 150 years, three great waves of technological change defined and redefined the state’s economy. The first centered on the production of cotton and cattle and their distribution by an extensive railroad system. The second grew out of the oil industry. The third and most recent is tied to the development of the high-tech digital economy.

Cotton Cotton is one of the oldest crops grown in Texas.9 Missions in San Antonio in the eigh- teenth century are reported to have produced several thousand pounds of cotton annu- ally, which were spun and woven by local artisans. Large-scale cultivation began in 1821

Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy

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13E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

with the arrival of White Americans. Political independence, state- hood, and the ongoing removal of the Native American “threat” in the years before the Civil War promoted the development of the cotton industry. By the mid-nineteenth century, production soared under the expanding institution of slavery, placing Texas eighth among the cotton-producing states in the Union. By 1880, Texas led all states in the production of cotton in most years.

Three technological breakthroughs further stimulated the cot- ton industry in Texas. First, in the 1870s barbed wire was intro- duced, enabling farmers to cordon off their lands and protect their crop from grazing cattle. Second, the building of railroads brought Texas farmers into a national market. Finally, a newly designed plow made it easier to dig up the prairie soil and significantly increased farm productivity.

Throughout the 1870s immigrants from the Deep South and Europe flooded the prairies of Texas to farm cotton. Most of these newly arrived Texans became tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Tenants lived on farms owned by others, providing their own animals, tools, and seed. They generally received two-thirds of the final value of the cotton grown on the farm, while their landlord received the other third. Sharecroppers, a subset of tenant farmers, furnished only their labor and received only half the value of the final product. By the turn of the century, almost half of the state’s farmers were tenants.10

Two important consequences resulted from the tenant and sharecropping system. First, it condemned many rural Texans to lives of social and economic dependency. Under the notorious “crop lien” system, developed by landlords and merchants to extend credit to farmers who did not own their land, farmers profited from their work only after their debts had been paid or new loans had been made to pay off old debts. The result often was to trap farmers in a debt cycle from which they could not escape. Second, the tenant and sharecropping system helped fuel radical political discontent in rural areas, sparking both the Grange and Populist movements. These movements played a major role in defining the style of Texas politics throughout much of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Cotton production cycled up and down during this period as farmers experienced a series of crises and opportunities, ranging from destructive boll weevils to an increased demand brought on by World War I to a collapse in prices following the war. Overall, however, the cotton culture began a decline that continued after World War II. The 1930 Census reported that 61 percent of all farmers in Texas were tenant farmers and that one-third of these were sharecroppers. These numbers fell throughout the Great Depression and beyond. By 1987 only 12 percent of all farmers were tenants.11 In 2019, 98.6 percent of Texas farms and ranches were family farms, partnerships, or family-held corporations.12

Cattle The history of ranching and the cattle industry parallels that of cotton.13 Their origins extend back to the late seventeenth century, when the Spanish colonial authorities brought livestock to the region to feed their missionaries, soldiers, and civilians. During

During the late nineteenth century, in most years Texas produced more cotton than any other state. But although over one-third of the cotton produced in the United States still comes from Texas, the importance of the cotton industry to the state’s economy has declined since the 1920s. This photo shows land and machinery used to farm cotton.

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the periods of Mexican rule and independence, ranching offered immigrants an attrac- tive alternative to farming. In the 1830s traffic in cattle was limited to local areas, but over the next two decades cattle drives and railroads began opening new markets in the east.

Following the Civil War, the cattle industry took off, expanding throughout the state. As with cotton, the invention of barbed wire helped, closing off ranch lands used for grazing. By the end of the century, open range had given way to fenced pasturing. As a result, conflicts over land often broke out between large and small ranchers as well as between ranchers and farmers. As cattle raising became a more specialized and efficient business, conflicts also arose between ranchers and their employees. Even into the first two decades of the twenty-first century, ranching remained a cyclical industry, strug- gling when national and international prices collapsed and thriving during upturns in the economy.

Ranching and cotton production remain important industries in the state, although increasingly dominated by big agribusiness companies. Today, Texas normally leads the nation in both livestock and cotton production. About 37.5 percent of the cotton pro- duced in the United States comes from Texas. In 2018 the cotton crop was over 6.8 mil- lion bales valued at over $2.4 billion, most of which was exported to China, Turkey, and Mexico. Production has fluctuated over the last decade because of the severe drought that plagued parts of the state.14

Today, however, neither cotton production nor ranching drives the Texas economy. The number of people making a living from agriculture has dropped significantly over the last 50 years as agribusiness has pushed out the family farm and ranch. In 1940, 23 percent of the population lived on farms and ranches. Another 17 percent were suppli- ers to farms and ranches or helped assemble, process, or distribute agricultural products. Currently, less than 2 percent of the population lives on farms and ranches, with an addi - tional 15 percent providing support, processing, or distribution services to agriculture.15

In the early twentieth century, a new set of technological breakthroughs challenged the nineteenth-century dominance of cotton and cattle. These breakthroughs focused not on what grew on the land, but on what lay beneath it.

Cattle ranching is another of Texas’s important industries. The most famous ranch in Texas is the King Ranch, shown here in 1950. Currently covering almost 1,300 square miles, it is larger than the state of Rhode Island.

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15E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

Oil Spanish explorers first sighted oil oozing out of the ground in the mid-seventeenth cen- tury.16 Because there was then no market or demand for it, however, nothing was done to develop this natural resource. Over a century later, encouraged by a growing demand for petroleum products following the Civil War, a scattering of entrepreneurs dug wells, but they proved not commercially viable. The first economically significant oil discovery in Texas was in 1894 in Navarro County near Corsicana. By 1898 the state’s first oil refinery was operating at the site.

What catapulted Texas into the era of oil and gas was the discovery at Spindletop on January 10, 1901. Located three miles south of Beaumont along the Gulf Coast, the Spin- dletop discovery produced the state’s first oil boom and encouraged large numbers of speculators and entrepreneurs to try their luck in the new business. Within three years, three major oilfields had been discovered within 150 miles of Spindletop. As a result, oil fever spread throughout Texas in the early twentieth century with major oilfields devel- oped all across the state.

The oil and gas industry transformed Texas. A cheap new source of energy helped farms and factories operate more efficiently, reducing the need for farm workers and stimulating manufacturing. This encouraged people to escape rural unemployment by moving to cities with growing numbers of industrial jobs. In addition, cheap oil encour- aged automobile production and the building of roads. The Interstate Highway System built during the 1950s and 1960s changed fundamentally the transportation patterns that had shaped the movements of people and goods in Texas. The triangle formed by I-35 from San Antonio to Dallas–Fort Worth, I-45 from Dallas–Fort Worth to Houston, and I-10 from Houston to San Antonio became the heartland of the Texas economy and the location of an increasing percentage of the state’s population.

The oil and gas boom brought a new rhythm to economic life in the state. When the economy was tied to cotton and cattle, prices of products could rise and fall, bringing prosperity or gloom to local economies. But there were natural seasonal and annual cycles in these agricultural activities, and a bond existed between the land and the people and the communities that formed around them. Oil and gas, on the other hand, introduced a boom-and-bust mentality that carried over into the communities that sprang up around oil and gas discoveries. Rural areas were often unprepared for the population explosion that followed such discoveries: housing was often inadequate or nonexistent, schools quickly became overcrowded, and living conditions were poor as people sought to “make it big.” Importantly, a major discovery that brought large amounts of new oil and gas to market could lead to a sudden collapse in prices. Local prosper- ity could then quickly turn into depression. And when particular fields were tapped out, boomtowns could quickly become ghost towns.

The oil and gas industry also transformed Texas government and its role in the state’s economy. In 1890, after considerable controversy fueled by hostility to railroad compa- nies, a constitutional amendment was passed to create a regulatory agency, the Texas Railroad Commission. In 1917 the commission’s powers were extended to regulation of energy, to ensure that petroleum pipelines were “common carriers” (that they trans- ported all producers’ oil and gas on equal terms) and to promote well-spacing rules (which controlled production by limiting how closely packed together oil wells could be in a particular field). In the 1930s, in an attempt to limit price fluctuations brought on by the glut of oil on world markets and to avoid wasteful production, the commission

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16 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

won the authority to determine how much every well in Texas was allowed to produce. Through the late 1960s the Texas Railroad Commission was one of the most important, as well as one of the few democratically elected, regulatory bodies in the nation.

Expanding the power of state government in the economy through the Railroad Commission was only one political effect of the oil and gas industry in Texas. The industry also had an important fiscal effect. Beginning in 1905 the state collected oil production taxes, which rose from $101,403 in 1906 to almost $6 million in 1929. For the 2020–21 biennium, it was estimated that such taxes, known as severance taxes, would contribute $7.8 billion to the state budget, up 7 percent from $7.3 billion in 2018–19. Natural gas production taxes in 2020–21 added another $3 billion to the state budget, similar to the $3.1 billion in 2018–19.17 These revenue numbers have fluctuated wildly in recent years, particularly during the months of the coronavirus pandemic. As we will see in Chapter 11 on public finance in Texas, oil and natural gas production plays an important role in the state’s finances through the severance tax.

Higher education in Texas has also benefited from the oil and gas industry. What many thought was worthless land at the time had been set aside by the state constitution of 1876 and the state legislature in 1883 as the Permanent University Fund to support higher education. As luck would have it, oil was discovered in the West Texas Permian Basin in 1923 on university land. Soon, 17 wells were producing oil there, sparking a building boom at the University of Texas. In 1931 the income of the Permanent Univer- sity Fund was split between the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M Univer- sity, with the former receiving two-thirds and the latter one-third. In 1984 the income was opened up to all University of Texas and Texas A&M schools. Along with the royal- ties from other natural resources on university land, oil and gas royalties created one of the largest university endowments in the world. In June 2019, the Permanent University Fund held title to 2.1 million acres in 24 counties, primarily in west Texas, and the mar- ket value of the fund was calculated to be $22.6 billion.18

At the end of the twentieth century, the oil and natural gas industry was no longer as important to the state’s economy as it once had been. Production of oil had fallen to below 400,000 barrels in 2008, despite high world prices for oil (see Figure 1.2). Beginning in 2008, new technologies such as horizontal drilling and fracking led to a new boom era of oil and gas production in Texas. Through 2017 a large share of the new production came from the Permian Basin region in west Texas, which may be the second-largest oilfield in the world. The result of this most recent boom is that oil and gas have emerged again as mainstays of the Texas economy, although it is an economy that is far more diversified than in any earlier era. With the boom came greater resources for the state’s budget. But the boom also brought new demands for vast water supplies—an essential component of the new drilling and fracking technologies—and new concerns about the effects of this technology on the environment.19

In the spring of 2020, two events posed new challenges to the oil and natural gas industry in Texas. First, in the late spring there was glut of oil on world markets. The price of oil collapsed, driving many oil producers out of business. Second, in response to the COVID -19 pandemic, shelter-in-place policies were put into effect throughout the state and nation, driving the economy into a serious recession. The demand for oil products fell significantly in Texas and around the world. No one was sure how deep or how long this recession might be or what the long-term impact would be on the oil and natural gas industry in Texas.

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17E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

Oil Production in Texas Note that these data refer to onshore production in Texas.

SOURCE: Texas Railroad Commission and Macrotrends.

FIGURE 1.2

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

1,000,000

1,200,000

1,400,000

PRODUCTION PRICE

2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018

$0

$20

$40

$60

$80

$100

$120

$140

Annual production (millions of barrels, left axis) Average price per barrel ($, right axis)

High-Tech Industry By the last decade of the twentieth century, new industries and technologies were assum- ing significant roles in the state’s economy. The 1990s were a period of rapid growth in the Texas economy. At the heart of this boom was a fast-growing manufacturing sector tied to high tech. In the 1990s, Texas went from seventh in the nation in total manufac- turing employment to second. In 2018, 13 percent of the total output in the state came from manufacturing, and 7 percent of the workforce was employed in manufacturing.20

The Austin–San Marcos area is the home of the computer giant Dell and has become a production center for computer chips, personal computers, and related computer hardware with such companies as Google, Facebook, Flex, Apple, Oracle, and IBM. Seven of the area’s largest employers are part of the computer or semiconductor industry. The Dal- las metropolitan area, particularly north of the city, is the home of a number of important electronic and electronic-equipment companies, including Texas Instruments. Houston also has become known worldwide for its medical center and expanding research facili- ties in the medical field.

Houston has become an important center of medical research. Here Dr. C. Huie Lin of Houston Methodist Research Institute displays a 3-D printed medical model of a patient’s heart, which is used to test surgical techniques.

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18 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

NAFTA, USMCA, and the International Economy Texas’s place in national and international markets has been shaped by its central loca- tion within the United States, its border with Mexico, and its sophisticated transporta- tion infrastructure. Since the signing of the north american Free Trade agreement (naFTa) by the United States, Mexico, and Canada, international trade has grown in importance to the Texas economy. The following statistics from 2019 put the importance of Texas’s international trade, particularly with Mexico and Canada, into perspective:21

• Texas exports totaled $330.5 billion, up from $207 billion in 2012. Texas exports were 20.1 percent of all U.S. exports.

• The North American market (Mexico and Canada) was the destination for 41.5 percent of these exports.

• Mexico was the top importer of Texas exports at almost $108.6 billion in 2019, up from almost $73 billion in 2012.

• Canada’s imports from Texas totaled $28.4 billion in 2013, up from $19 billion in 2010.

The Trump administration’s concerns over undocumented workers in the United States and terrorism have added a new dimension to the debate over NAFTA and global trade in Texas. Most Texas political and business leaders continue to believe that expand- ing trade with Mexico and other countries is a good thing. A free flow of people across the border, however, is another issue. An increasing number of people, particularly conser- vative Republicans, now question the benefits to Texas of a porous border. During the 2016 election campaign, Donald Trump, as well as leading Texas Republicans, portrayed the large numbers of undocumented workers in Texas as a burden upon the state’s social

north american Free Trade agreement (naFTa) trade treaty among the United States, Canada, and Mexico to lower and eliminate tariffs among the three countries

The signing of NAFTA in 1992 ( left) created a free-trade zone in North America. Although many Texas workers were adversely affected by the availability of cheaper labor in Mexico, NAFTA appears to have had a beneficial effect on the state’s economy as a whole. In 2018, President Trump (right) negotiated a new trade deal between the United States, Mexico, and Canada that addressed the concerns of many conservatives over NAFTA .

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19E C O N O M I C C H A N G E I N T E X A S

services. President Trump has claimed that undocumented immigrants have brought crime and drugs across the border with them. Moreover, fears of Islamic terrorists accompanying Mexicans and other Latin Americans seeking work in the United States have led to calls for building walls and fences that will make illegal immigration a thing of the past. Conceding that immigration is a national issue, numerous Texas politicians have called for a stricter policing of the border by state authorities. It is hard to imagine a new stricter border policy not having negative effects on the trade that has followed from NAFTA and expanding global trade (see the What Do Texans Think? feature).

NAFTA was replaced by a new trade agreement among the United States, Mexico, and Canada (USMCA) in the fall of 2018. Among the changes demanded by the Trump administration were provisions to protect American workers in the car industry from low wages, increased intellectual property protections, and an opening up of the Cana- dian milk market. Initial fears that free trade among the three nations might be a thing of the past were set aside as they agreed that increased trade under the proper conditions benefited all parties and that tariffs served no one.

NAFTA and International Trade The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was an important part of national economic policy from when it was signed in the early 1990s. At both the state and national levels, Democrats and ideological liberals generally supported the agreement. But Republicans and conservatives, once strongly in favor of free-trade agreements like NAFTA, grew to oppose the agreement. In the fall of 2018 the Trump administration negotiated a new trade agreement, the United States- Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) with Mexico and Canada, which mostly addressed the concerns of conservatives.

W H AT DO T E x A NS T HI N k? ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

NAFTA: Mostly Good or Bad for Economy? TEXanS

LibEraL (%) ModEraTE (%) ConSErvaTivE (%) don’T knoW/ rEFuSEd (%)

Good 57% 52% 29% 36%

Bad 13 19 38 10

Don’t know/refused 30 29 33 54

naTionWidE

bad (%) Good (%) don’T knoW/no rESPonSE (%)

All 33% 56% 11%

Democrat/Leaning Democrat 18 72 10

SOURCES: (top) 2017 Texas Statewide Sur vey, the Texas Lyceum, April 18, 2017, 1,000 respondents; (bottom) Pew Research Center Sur vey, October 25–30, 2017, 1,504 respondents.

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20 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

The Military in Texas Since Texas’s annexation by the United States, its economic development has been closely tied to the establishment of military bases. As population pressures pushed westward, a series of federal forts were built to protect Texans from Native Americans, who were perceived to be alien threats to the expanding Anglo-American culture. Seiz- ing federal forts for the Confederacy was one of the first and most important acts of the Texas government following secession. And Texas provided a major military training center during both world wars. Strong leadership in Congress from Texas politicians such as Sam Rayburn and Lyndon Johnson during the New Deal and the post–WWII years brought much-needed jobs and money into the state through the building of one military installation after another (see Figure 1.3).

It is hard to overestimate the importance of these military bases to local communi- ties. For example, Fort Bliss is the U.S. Army’s second-largest base in size, covering over 1.1 million acres in Texas and New Mexico. In partnership with the city of El Paso, Fort Bliss created the world’s largest inland desalination plant, providing fresh water to the base and city. Fort Hood is today the army’s largest active-duty armored post. Taking up more than 217,000 acres, Fort Hood has been responsible for deploying and redeploying over 852,000 soldiers since 2003. Fort Hood is the home to over 43,000 military and civilian personnel, making it the largest single-site employer in the state. According to a study conducted by the Texas Comptroller’s Office, the base generated $21 billion for the state’s economy.22

Today, military installations continue to be important to the economic well-being of the state. In 2019, 150,000 active-duty, reserve, and civilian personnel employed by

Civilian: 3,059 Reserve: 93 Active: 19 Date opened: 1941 Red River Army Depot

Civilian: 1,603 Reserve: 131 Active: 5,973

Date opened: 1941 Sheppard Air Force Base

Civilian: 710 Reserve: 425 Active: 4,221

Date opened: 1942 Dyess Air Force Base Active: 880

Reserve: 6,729 Civilian: 892

Date opened: 1994

Naval Air Station Fort Worth

Civilian: 635 Reserve: 29

Active: 3,195 Date opened: 1940

Goodfellow Air Force Base

Civilian: 1,108 Reserve: 82 Active: 1,288

Date opened: 1942 Laughlin Air Force Base

Civilian: 9,296 Reserve: 4,224 Active: 21,532

Date opened: 1942 Lackland Air Force Base*

Civilian: 243 Reserve: 159

Active: 363 Date opened: 1942

Naval Air Station Kingsville

Civilian: 710 Reserve: 395 Active: 1,369 Date opened: 1941

Naval Air Station Corpus Christi

Civilian: 10,506 Reserve: 692 Active: 10,462 Date opened: 1878 Fort Sam Houston*Civilian: 5,177

Reserve: 538 Active: 2,649 Date opened: 1930 Randolph Air Force Base*

Civilian: 6,915 Reserve: 805 Active: 36,391 Date opened: 1942 Fort Hood

Civilian: 5,660 Reserve: 260 Active: 25,546 Date opened: 1849 Fort Bliss

Major U.S. Military Bases in Texas *In October 2010, Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and Randolph Air Force Base were merged into Joint Base San Antonio under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Air Force 502nd Air Base Wing, Air Education and Training Command, in accordance with the recommendations of the federal Base Realignment and Closure Commission.

SOURCE: Texas Almanac online, Major Military Installations, texasalmanac.com. Taken from U.S. Department of Defense, “Base Structure Report 2018.”

FIGURE 1.3

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21W H O A R E T E X A N S ?

the U.S. military were living in Texas. The military, along with the many businesses that provide consumer services to its members, is big business in Texas. Expanding the mili- tary stimulates economic growth and employment in Texas.

Who are Texans?

The population of Texas has grown rapidly since 1850, when it stood at a little more than 210,000 people, more than one-quarter of whom were enslaved African Americans. According to the 1900 U.S. Census, there were only 470 American Indians still residing in Texas, the others having been driven out during the Indian Wars. Today Texas is the home to over 65,000 American Indians. Although there are three recognized reserva- tions, most live in urban areas, including over 20,000 in Dallas–Fort Worth.23

Texas in 1850 was an overwhelmingly rural state. Only 4 percent of the popula- tion lived in urban areas. By 1900 the population had increased to more than 3 million, with 83 percent living in rural areas. The 1980s began as boom years for population growth, with increases running between 2.9 percent and 1.6 percent per year from 1980 through 1986. After a brief slowdown, a recovering economy spurred population growth, which surged in the 1990s and has continued to do so into the twenty-first century.

Three factors account for the population growth in Texas: natural increase as a result of the difference between births and deaths; international immigration, partic- ularly from Mexico; and domestic immigration from other states. The makeup of the growth in population shifted in significant ways in the late twentieth and early twenty- first centuries. In 1991 almost two-thirds of population growth was accounted for by natural increase. A little more than 20 percent was a result of international immigra- tion, while less than 14 percent resulted from domestic immigration. By 2017 natural increase accounted for only a little over half the growth, while international immigra- tion accounted for about 17 percent and domestic immigration for about 30 percent.24 In the early decades of the twenty-first century, Texas was being redefined not by native- born Texans but by outsiders coming to benefit from and contribute to the state’s diver- sified economy.

In 2017, it was estimated that 400,000 new residents were added to the state, bring- ing the total population to 28.3 million people. The majority of this increase came from a natural increase. Of the 189,580 people who migrated into Texas during 2017, there was a sharp change in the numbers of international migrants (from outside the United States) and domestic migrants (from inside the United States). In 2016, 91,839 came to Texas from abroad while 125,703 came from other states. In 2017, the trend lines reversed: 110,417 migrated from abroad while 79,163 immigrated from other states. The immedi- ate impact of this would mean that there would be more Latinos and fewer Whites mak- ing up the Texas population in coming years.25

For a deeper understanding of the roles that changing demographics have played in Texas’s culture and politics, we must look closer at the major racial and ethnic groups that have constituted the population over time (see Figure 1.4).

Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time

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22 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Whites For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the largest ethnic group was non- Hispanic Whites, also referred to as Whites or Anglos. Whites comprise a wide range of European ethnic groups, including English, Germans, Scots, Irish, Czechs, and Euro- pean Jews. The first wave of  Whites came to Texas before the break with Mexico. Encour- aged by empresarios such as Moses Austin and his son Stephen F. Austin, who were authorized by the Spanish and later the Mexican leaders to bring people to Texas, these newcomers sought inexpensive land. And they brought along a new set of individualis- tic attitudes and values about democratic government that paved the way for the Texas Revolution. Following the revolution, a new surge of White immigrants came from the Deep South. Like their predecessors, they too sought cheap land, but they brought with them new cultural baggage: slavery. By the time of the American Civil War, this group had come to dominate the political culture of the state. Although most Texas farmers were not slaveowners themselves, the vast majority supported the institution as well as seces- sion from the Union.

Defeat in the Civil War shattered temporarily the dominance of the traditional White power structure in the state. By the end of Reconstruction, however, it had reasserted itself, establishing the three patterns that defined Texas politics for the next hundred years: the one-party Democratic state, provincialism, and business dominance. Whites continued to dominate and define Texas’s political culture throughout much of the twentieth century, but by the end of that century much had changed. As a percentage of the total, White population peaked at 74 percent in 1950. This percentage began to fall, reaching 41.5 percent in 2019, and will likely continue to fall (see Figure 1.5).26

empresario Spanish word for an individual who promotes, organizes, or helps to finance a particular endeavor

The Changing Face of Texas, 1850–2018 *Latinos were not counted as a separate group until 1990 and were included in the White census count.

SOURCES: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1994 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1994); see also Texas Alma ­ nac 2014–15 (Denton: Texas State Historical Association, 2014), 15; 2010 U.S. Census. Texas Almanac 2018–19 also consulted. These are available online.

FIGURE 1.4

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1850 1900 1950 2000 2018

White

Latino

African American

Asian American

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23W H O A R E T E X A N S ?

Furthermore, numbers alone do not tell the whole story. A new wave of White immi- gration into Texas over the past 40 years has redefined the political culture of White Texans. No longer can one assume that a White Texan lives on a farm, holds culturally conservative values, and is firmly tied to the Democratic Party. On the contrary, he or she may not have been born in Texas and furthermore may be an urbanite with progressive values or a suburbanite who votes Republican.

Latinos The use of Hispanic and Latino can be confusing. The terms are often used interchange- ably to refer to people of Spanish descent or people from Latin America. In asking about ethnic identity and reporting the results, the U.S. Census generally uses the term His- panic in its databases, but we will generally use the terms Latino and Latina.

Most Latinos and Latinas in Texas are of Mexican descent.27 Prior to independence from Spain, this group included people born of Iberian (Spanish) parents as well as mestizos (people of mixed Spanish and Native American ancestry). In the early nine - teenth  century, approximately 5,000 people of Mexican descent were living in Texas.

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

3–37.8%

37.9–54.8%

54.9–74.7%

74.8% and above

White Population in Texas Counties, 2018 SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, “QuickFacts,” www.census.gov/ (accessed 4/27/20).

FIGURE 1.5

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24 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Although their number fluctuated considerably over the years, by 1850 it was estimated that 14,000 Texans were of Mexican origin. Over the next 75 years, Texas became for many a refuge from the political and economic instability that troubled Mexico from the late 1850s to the 1920s. Subsequently, despite periodic attempts to curtail the growth of the Mexican American population in Texas, it grew from an estimated 700,000 in 1930 to 1,400,000 in 1960 and to 5.1 million in 2000. Immigration from other Latin Ameri- can countries intensified as well. In 2019 there were approximately 11.5 million Lati- nos and Latinas residing in Texas, who constituted over 19 percent of all Latinos in the United States.28

Until 1900, Latinos were concentrated in south Texas, constituting a majority along the border with Mexico and in certain border counties of west Texas. During the first few decades of the twentieth century, many migrated to northwest Texas and the Pan- handle to work as laborers in the newly emergent cotton economy. Labor segregation limited the opportunities available to them before World War II. After the war, however, many Latinos left agricultural work and took jobs in the rapidly growing urban areas of Texas. By the end of the century, Latinos and Latinas constituted majorities in the cities of San Antonio and El Paso and sizable minorities in Houston, Dallas, Austin, and Fort Worth (see Figure 1.6).

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

3.7–23.8%

23.9–34.2%

34.3–55.8%

55.9–96.4%

Latino Population in Texas Counties, 2018 SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, “QuickFacts,” www.census.gov (accessed 4/27/20).

FIGURE 1.6

govtex5_ch01_002_039.indd 24 12/10/20 8:44 PM

SOURCES: Texas Demographic Center, demographics.texas.gov; (accessed 6/15/16).

NOTE: Numbers do not always add up to 100 percent due to rounding.

projections of how the Texas population will change over the next 30 years. The state’s population will continue to grow quickly, especially as the number of Latino and Latina Texans increases. Further, most of the population

How Is the Texas Population Changing?

25,145,56114,229,191Total population = 41,311,221

San Antonio

El Paso

Houston

Dallas–Fort Worth

Brownsville

Austin

McAllen

2,142,508

804,123

6,426,214

5,920,416

406,220

1,716,289

774,769

2,481,286

929,478

7,445,492

6,934,564

478,974

2,090,278

953,069

3,445,603

1,301,438

11,147,784

10,273,617

729,461

3,338,673

1,589,783

+16%

+16%

+16%

+17%

+18%

+22%

+23%

+61%

+62%

+73%

+74%

+80%

+95%

+105%

Area 2010 2020 2050

66%

12% 21%

1%

2010

45%

12% 38%

6%

2050

28%

10% 54%

8%

(projected population growth from the year 2010, by metropolitan area)

= 250,000 people African American

LatinoWhite Other African

American

LatinoWhite Other African

American

LatinoWhite Other

Geography

Race and Total Population

• Based on your reading of the data, how many Latinos were added to the state population between 1980 and 2010? How many Whites? How is the projected 2050 population different from the population in 2010?

• Given the metropolitan population projections for 2020 and 2050, how might the balance of political power shift over the next 40 years?

QUANTITATIVE REASONING

1980

W H O A R E T E X A N S ?

growth in the state will happen in metropolitan areas—Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and Austin.

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26 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Most Latinos and Latinas in Texas are Mexican American. During the first half of the twentieth century, Mexicans immigrated to Texas to work in the emerging cotton industry. Today, Latinos play a central role in Texas politics. In 2019 former El Paso county judge Veronica Escobar became one of the first Latinas to represent Texas in the U.S. Congress.

poll tax a state tax imposed as a requirement for voting; poll taxes were rendered unconstitutional in national elections by the Twenty- Fourth Amendment, and in state elections by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1966

The political status of Latinos in Texas has changed considerably over the past hun- dred years. Well into the twentieth century, their ability to vote, particularly among the lower economic classes, was tightly controlled or actively discouraged by the White pri- mary and the poll tax. Only after World War II were Latino politicians able to escape some of the strictures that had been imposed on them by the dominant White political culture. A more tolerant atmosphere in urban areas enabled some to assume positions of importance in local political communities. In 1956, Henry B. González became the first Mexican American elected to the Texas Senate since the nineteenth century. In the mid- 1960s a political movement emerged in the La Raza Unida Party, which confronted many of the discriminatory practices that isolated Texas Latinos from the political and eco- nomic mainstream. By the 1980s, Latino political leaders were playing a growing role in state politics, and Latino voters were courted heavily by both political parties. The num- ber of Latinos and Latinas elected to public office rose from 1,466 in 1986 to 2,521 in 2011. In 2016 the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials reported that 1 Latino served in the U.S. Senate from Texas, 5 Latinos represented Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives, 7 Latinos were in the Texas Senate, and 35 Latinos were elected to the state legislature. In addition, the association reported that 2,477 Latinos and Latinas served as local officials in Texas.29

African Americans People of African descent were among the earliest explorers of Texas.30 Most African Americans, however, entered Texas as enslaved people brought by Whites from the upper and lower South. At first, antislavery attitudes among Spanish and Mexican authorities kept the population of enslaved people down. However, independence from Mexico lifted the restrictions on slavery, creating an incentive for southerners to expand the system westward. The number of enslaved people in Texas rose from 5,000 in 1845 to 58,000 in 1850. By the Civil War, over 182,000 enslaved people lived in Texas, approximately one- third of the state’s entire population.

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27W H O A R E T E X A N S ?

Emancipation for African Americans living in Texas came on June 19, 1865, when federal troops landed in Galveston to take formal control of the state. On that day, the federal commander, General Granger, released General Order No. 3, which proclaimed “The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all [enslaved people] are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and [enslaved people], and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.” With this order, over 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were granted their freedom, two and a half years after Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and six months before the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the states on December  18, 1865. This day is now celebrated by African Americans across the country as “Juneteenth” and commemorates the official end of slavery in the United States. However, emancipation did not bring anything approaching equality. Between 1865 and 1868 both the state legislature and various cities passed a series of so-called Black Codes that restricted the rights of formerly enslaved people. But federal military occupation of the state and congressional reconstruction of its government opened new opportunities for formerly enslaved people, who supported the radical wing of the Republican Party. Ten African American delegates helped write the Texas Con- stitution of 1869, and 43 served in the state legislature between 1868 and 1900.

The end of Reconstruction and the return to power of the Democratic Party in the mid-1870s, however, reversed much of the postwar progress made by Black Texans. In 1900 over 100,000 African Americans voted in Texas elections. By 1903 the number had fallen to under 5,000, largely because of the imposition of the poll tax in 1902 and the passage of an early version of the White primary law in 1903. In 1923 the legislature explicitly banned Blacks from voting in the Democratic primary. Segregation of the races became a guiding principle of public policy, backed by the police power of the state and reinforced by lynching and race riots against African Americans. Between 1885 and 1942, 339 African Americans were lynched in Texas, with most lynchings taking place in the eastern portion of the state.31 For all intents and purposes, African Americans had become second-class citizens, disenfranchised by the political system and marginalized by the political culture.

As in most former slave states, there was initial resistance to the civil rights movement in Texas. These signs ( left) appeared in Fort Worth’s Riverside section in September 1956 during a protest over a Black  family’s moving into a previously all-White block of homes. Today, Eric Johnson (right) serves as the mayor of Dallas.

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28 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

Austin Houston

Laredo

San Antonio

El Paso

DallasFort Worth

0–3.4%

3.5–6.3%

6.4–11.1%

11.2–34.1%

African American Population in Texas Counties, 2018 SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, “QuickFacts,” www.census.gov (accessed 4/27/20).

FIGURE 1.7

In the 1940s and 1950s federal court decisions offered some hope of relief to Afri- can Americans living in Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Smith v. Allwright (1944) outlawed the White primary. Sweatt v. Painter (1950) guaranteed African Ameri- cans admission to graduate and professional schools at state colleges and universities. Finally, Brown v. Board of Education (1954) outlawed the segregation of public schools.

Political progress was much slower. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 helped to open the political system in Texas to African Americans, and in 1966 a small number of African American candidates began to win political office in the state. In 1972, Barbara Jordan became the first African American woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The state’s African American population remains concentrated in east Texas, where the plantation and sharecropping systems were dominant during the nineteenth cen- tury. Large numbers of African Americans have also migrated to Houston and Dallas, where they form sizable minorities in both central-city and suburban areas (see Fig- ure 1.7). African American political leaders have come to play major roles in these areas as members of Congress, the state legislature, and city councils, as well as mayors of Houston and Dallas beginning in the late 1990s.

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29U R B A N I Z AT I O N

Asian Americans Although considerably smaller than the groups already discussed, the Asian population has grown in Texas in recent years. It includes individuals from many countries, but particularly India, Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Korea, and Japan. In 2017 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that over 1 million Asian Americans resided in Texas, or about 5 per- cent of the state’s population.32 Asian Americans tend to be concentrated in certain cit- ies and their suburbs, particularly in west Houston and Fort Bend County, the western and northern suburbs of Dallas, Arlington, and Austin and its suburbs. Sizable pockets of Asian Americans also live along the Gulf Coast.33

Age When compared with the rest of the nation, the population of Texas is younger. In 2019, 32.9 percent of the population was estimated to be under 18 years old, compared with 28.5 percent nationally. In addition, only 12.6 percent of Texans were 65 or older, com- pared with 16.0 percent nationally.34 Its relatively young population presents Texas with a variety of both problems and opportunities, as we shall see in later chapters.

Poverty and Wealth Younger populations tend to be poorer, as income and poverty statistics bear out. Even taking into account the Great Recession (2008–09), the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries were a period of rapid economic growth in Texas. Although the state continued to lag slightly behind the nation as a whole, its per capita income rose from $17,366 in 1990 to $52,504 in 2019 (see Table 1.1), ranking Texas at 25 among the 50 states. The percentage of the population in Texas with incomes below the poverty level—as defined by the federal government—was 13.6 percent in 2019.35

urbanization

urbanization is the process by which people move from rural to urban areas. Subur- banization is the process by which people move out of central city areas to surround- ing suburban areas. Much of Texas’s history is linked to ongoing urbanization. By the twenty-first century, this process was largely complete, as 85 percent of the population now resides in urban areas (see Figure 1.8). Suburbanization, however, continues as city populations spill over into surrounding suburban areas.36 Urbanization has transformed Texas political life.

Describe Texas’s shift from a rural soci- ety to an urban one

TABLE 1.1

Per Capita Personal Income in Texas and the United States

1990 2019

United States $19,611 $56,663

Texas $17,366 $52,504

SOURCE: U.S. Depar tment of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis.

urbanization the process by which people move from rural to urban areas

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30 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Urban Political Life Understanding the complexity of the government and politics in Texas today demands having some sense of how Texas’s major metropolitan areas compare with each other (see Table 1.2). We will look briefly at four of the most important.

Houston Houston, located in Harris County, is the largest city in Texas and—with a population of 2.3 million—the fourth-largest in the United States, behind New York, Los

Angeles, and Chicago. Its metropolitan area encompasses eight counties, with an estimated population of 6.1 million in 2011. Houston grew by 7.5 percent during the first decade of the twenty-first century.

In the late nineteenth century, Houston’s economic well- being depended on cotton and commerce. Railroads played an integral role in placing the city at the hub of the Texas economy, and the opening of the Houston Ship Channel further enhanced its position by helping to turn it into the second or third largest deep-water port in the United States. But it was oil that fundamentally transformed the Houston area in the twentieth century. Oil refineries opened along the ship channel and a petrochemical industry emerged, making Houston one of the leading energy centers in the world. Today, Houston continues to rank first in the nation in the manufacture of petroleum equipment.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: GET INVOLVED

• Based on the population growth, urbanization, and economic change of the last two decades, what do the next two decades hold for Texas? Which areas will grow in population, and will government be ready for that growth?

• If you wrote a letter to the governor or your state legislators, what advice would you give them to strengthen the Texas economy? Would you want them to focus on supporting rural or urban communities? Why?

Urbanization in Texas, 1850–2010 SOURCE: Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1994 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 1994); Texas Almanac 2001–2002 (Dallas: Dallas Morning News, 2001); U.S. Department of Agricul- ture, Economic Research Service, U.S. Census Bureau, “Texas: 2010, Population and Housing Unit Courts, 2010 Census of Population and Housing” (September 2012), p. 16.

FIGURE 1.8

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

1850 1900 1950 2010

Rural Urban

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31U R B A N I Z AT I O N

Race and Ethnic Breakdown of Texas and Its Largest Counties, 2019 (major cities indicated in parentheses)

WHiTE (%) bLaCk (%) LaTino (%) aSian (%) MuLTiPLE raCES (%) ToTaL

Texas statewide 39.6%* 12.8% 39.6% 5.2% 2.0% 28,995,881

Harris (Houston) 29.1 19.9 43.3 7.4 1.9 4,713,325

Dallas (Dallas) 28.6 23.5 40.5 6.7 1.9 2,635,516

Tarrant (For t Wor th) 45.9 17.5 29.2 5.8 2.5 2,102,515

Bexar (San Antonio) 27.4 8.5 60.5 3.3 2.4 2,003,554

Travis (Austin) 48.8 8.9 33.9 7.3 2.6 1,273,954

Collin (Plano) 55.9 10.5 15.4 15.9 2.7 1,034,730

El Paso (El Paso) 11.6 3.9 83.0 1.3 1.5 839,238

*Columns may not add to 100 percent as a result of multiple counting. These are estimates projected from the 2019 Census. SOURCE: U.S. Census Bureau, 2019.

TABLE 1.2

By 1930, Houston had become the largest city in Texas, with a population of around 292,000 people. The population continued to expand in the next half century, assisted by a liberal state annexation policy that enabled the city to incorporate into itself many of the outlying suburban areas. Although the oil bust in the mid-1980s slowed the city’s growth, that growth continued in the early twenty-first century.

dallas–Fort Worth Metroplex The Metroplex is an economic region encompassing the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth as well as a number of their sub- urban cities, including Arlington (population 398,112 in 2018), Mesquite (142,816), Gar - land (242,507), Richardson (120,981), Irving (242,242), Plano (288,061), McKinney (191,645), Carrollton (136,879), Grand Prairie (194,614), Frisco (188,170), and Den- ton (138,541).37 The major counties in the area are Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin. The Metroplex is joined together by a number of interlocking highways running north– south and east–west and by a major international airport strategically located in the national air system.

Dallas was founded as a trading post in 1841, near where two roads were to be built by the Republic.38 By the 1850s it had become a retail center servicing surrounding rural areas, with a population that reached 3,000 by 1870. The coming of the Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1871 and the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1873 made Dallas the first rail crossroads in Texas and transformed forever its place in the state’s econ- omy. Markets now beckoned east and north, encouraging entrepreneurs and merchants to set up shop. As cotton became a major cash crop, the city’s population more than tri- pled by 1880, to more than 10,000 people. By the turn of the twentieth century, Dallas had grown to more than 42,000 people.

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32 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

As with Houston, the oil economy changed the direction and scope of the city’s eco- nomic life. With the discovery of oil in east Texas in 1930, Dallas became a major cen- ter for petroleum financing. By the end of World War II, the economy had diversified, making Dallas a minor manufacturing center in the nation. In the 1950s and 1960s technology companies such as Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) and Texas Instruments were added to the industrial mix, transforming Dallas into the third-largest technology cen- ter in the nation. The high-tech boom of the 1990s was built from the corporate infra- structure laid down in the 1950s and 1960s. Dallas grew from 844,401 people in 1970 to 1,341,075 in 2017.

Although locked together in important ways economically, Dallas and Fort Worth are as different as night and day. Whereas Dallas looks to the east and embodies a more corporate white-collar business culture, Fort Worth looks to the west. Fort Worth origi- nated as an army post in 1849,39 but by 1853 the military had abandoned it as new forts were built to the west. Although settlers replaced the soldiers, population growth was slow through the early 1870s. The spark that set off the town’s prosperity was the rise of the cattle industry. Because Fort Worth was a convenient place for cowboys to rest on their cattle drives from southern Texas to Kansas, cattle buyers established head- quarters in the city. By 1900, Fort Worth was served by eight railroad companies, most of them transporting cattle and related products to national markets.

The two world wars encouraged further economic development in Fort Worth. Over 100,000 troops were trained at Camp Bowie during World War I. World War II brought an important air force base and, along with it, the aviation industry. The Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, which was later bought by General Dynamics, became the largest manufacturer in the city. Between 1900 and 1950, Fort Worth’s population grew from 26,668 to 277,047. By 2017 the population was 874,168. The overall metropolitan area of Dallas–Fort Worth included 6.954 million people in 2014.

Houston is a large metropolitan area with a growing minority population. Here, recent immigrants take a class on English as a second language in Fort Bend County, near Houston.

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SOURCES: U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts 2014, www.census.gov; demography.cpc.unc.edu.

NOTE: Numbers do not always add up to 100 percent. Black Latinos may be counted in both categories.

Percent Change in Population, 2000–2010

Data not available

50% +

25.1 to 49%

9.7 to 25%

0 to 9.6%

Loss

9.7%: overall U.S. change

Gain

-10 to -0.1%

-50 to -10.1%

Racial Diversity

White

Black

Latino

Asian

44%

13%

39%

4%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

80%

13%

4%

2%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

39%

7%

39%

14%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

56%

17%

24%

3%

White

Black

Latino

Asian

57%

18%

19%

9%

Texas OhioCalifornia Florida New York

Texas is more diverse than many states in the country, which has important implications for the future of the state's politics. Also, the Texas population has increased dramatically, while some states are not growing as fast. In fact many states in the Midwest such as Ohio and Pennsylvania have seen population declines in recent years.

How Does Texas’s Population Compare to Other Major States’?

T E X A S A N D T HE N AT I O N

In what ways are California and Texas similar in terms of demographic makeup? How are they different?

In what ways will Texas politics change in the future based on its racial and ethnic makeup?

CRITICAL THINKING

•

•

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34 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

San antonio San Antonio, in Bexar County, grew out of the Spanish presidio San Antonio de Béxar, which was founded in 1718.40 In 1773 it became the capital of Span- ish Texas, and by the Civil War, it was the largest city in Texas.

Following the war, San Antonio continued to grow rapidly, stimulated by the build- ing of the San Antonio Railroad in 1877. By 1880 the population was more than 20,000, mostly White Americans from southern states. By 1920 it had reached 161,000. Mexican immigration increased significantly following the Mexican Revolution of 1910 and the building of a city infrastructure that provided paved roads, utilities, water, telephones, and hospitals. By midcentury, San Antonio had become a unique blend of Latino, Ger- man, and southern Anglo American cultures.

Today, San Antonio is Texas’s second-largest city (third if you consider Dallas and Fort Worth together). The population of the city was estimated to be 1,532,233 in 2018. San Antonio’s population has become increasingly Latino. In San Antonio in 2018, approximately 64.2 percent of the people were Latino, 24.8 percent were White, and 6.9 percent were African American.41

Unlike Houston or Dallas, San Antonio lacks high-paying manufacturing jobs, and average metropolitan income is lower than in Houston and Dallas. The economy rests on four legs: national military bases, educational institutions, tourism, and a large medical research complex.

austin Located in central Texas in Travis County on the eastern edge of the Hill Country, Austin had an estimated population of 964,254 in 2018. Per capita income was $40,391—33 percent higher than the state average. Median household income was $67,462—13 percent higher than the state amount. Almost half of adults living in Aus- tin had a bachelor’s degree or higher.42 Along with Round Rock and San Marcos, Aus- tin is part of the 31st largest metropolitan area in the country and 4th largest in the state ( behind Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, and San Antonio).

Austin’s economy rests on three solid foundations. First, as the state capital, Austin is the hub of governmental business in the state. Although the legislature only meets for 140 days every two years, state agencies are a year-round activity as are the lobbying activities of special interests. Second, Austin is the location of the University of Texas at Austin, the flagship institution of the University of Texas system and home to more than 50,000 students and faculty. In 2012–13 it was estimated that the school generated $8.8 billion in Texas business activity.43 Third, Austin has a thriving high-tech industry. Grown from seeds planted by governmental and university activity, Austin’s computer and electronics businesses are the core of one of the most vibrant regional economies in the country. Through them, the city continues to attract people and businesses at a remarkable pace.

Having settled its status as the government hub in the state in 1846, Austin began to gradually grow, reaching a population of 3,546 in 1860. The emergence of the Hous- ton and Texas Central Railroad in 1871 linked Austin to the eastern part of the state and turned it into a trading center in central Texas. By 1880 the city’s population had grown to 11,013.

Compared with that of Dallas–Fort Worth or Houston, Austin’s economic base was narrow for the early decades of the twentieth century. Except for the benefits gleaned from the university’s endowment, Austin missed out on much of the economic devel- opment flowing from the rise of oil and gas production. The population of the city was 22,258 in 1900 and 132,459 in 1950.44 Austin’s population began to surge in the second

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35P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E A N D T H E F U T U R E O F T E X A S

half of the twentieth century, growing to 656,962 in 2000. Driving this increase was a rapidly diversifying economy led by the high-tech sector. IBM located to Austin in 1969 and was soon followed by Texas Instruments and Motorola. Other high-tech firms fol- lowed in the 1980s, including Dell Computers and Sematech. By the 1990s there were estimated to be 400 high-technology businesses located in Austin.45 In 2017, Austin’s 100 largest digital tech companies employed almost 60,000 people. Amazon and Facebook have increased their presence in the city with plans to expand.46

Urban areas like Austin, Houston, and Dallas have become bastions of liberal politics. Here, demonstrators rally to protest the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border outside the Texas capitol building in Austin.

Political Culture and the Future of Texas W E b E G A N this chapter by highlighting the importance of the coronavirus out - break in Texas and the nation in early 2020. What began as a public health crisis soon morphed into an economic crisis of cataclysmic proportions. As shelter- in-place policies were implemented by local governments across the state to protect the further spread of the virus, economic activity collapsed, spot market oil prices (that is, the price of oil to be delivered within two days of sale) for west Texas crude fell below $0.00, unemployment rates escalated rapidly, and tax rev- enues began to decline sharply. Partisan controversies broke out among state and local officials regarding how best to balance public health against getting

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36 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

the economy going again. The stakes were high, not just in public health or pri - vate wealth but in determining which party might control the levers of power in the state for the coming decade.

The public health crisis brought on by the coronavirus is likely a short- or medium-term problem that will be resolved when an effective vaccine is deve l- oped along with treatments that can manage or even cure infections. Over the next few years, this public health problem could prove damaging to the state’s economy, and popular frustration with elected officials could grow if state and local governments are unable to alleviate the suffering brought on by the pan - demic. But economic recovery will take place. The political future of Texas will be created not by COVID-19, but by long-term demographic and economic changes in the state.

Three great technological revolutions have in turn reshaped the economic life of the state over the last 150 years. Accompanying and fueling these eco- nomic transformations have been ongoing demographic changes, which have redefined who the “typical” Texan is and where this person lives. No longer can it be said that a “typical” Texan is simply an extension of White American culture rooted in southern tradition. No longer does this person reside in a small town, living life close to the land much as his or her ancestors did. Like the economy, the people of Texas have become diversified. Increasing numbers of Latinos from Mexico and farther south and Whites from other parts of the United States as well as immigrants from Asia have created a new melting pot of cultures and concerns throughout the state, especially in the big metropolitan areas.

The future of Texas likely will continue to be defined by economic and demo - graphic change. For almost 40 years, a diversifying economy fueled by inter - national trade and a rejuvenated oil and natural gas industry has integrated the state more closely into a burgeoning world economy. President Trump’s call to reevaluate international trade agreements, particularly NAFTA, and to rethink our trade relationship with China may negatively affect Texas’s connection to the world economy. However, it is hard to imagine Texas in the twenty-first century without a thriving export-driven economy. Similarly, calls to build a wall to keep out undocumented workers may slow down the flow of Latinos into Texas, but it is hard to imagine Texas without a growing population fueled by loose immi- gration rules. Trump’s initiatives aside, Latinos will come to play an increas- ingly important role in the economic and political life of the state as the Latino population ages and works its way through the educational system. Over the next 30 years, both political parties will have to adjust their expectations and ideologies to meet the demands of an electorate increasingly domi- nated by young Latino voters.

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STUDYGUIDE

37S T U DY G U I D E

Use QIJK to help you study and master this material.

• Describe the defining characteristics of political culture in Texas (pp. 5–7)

Texas political culture can best be characterized as individ- ualistic and traditional. Texans have great pride in their state and have adopted a famous phrase, “Don’t mess with Texas,” for those external forces wishing to change the state’s way of doing things. Texas is a low-tax state with distrust for large government programs. Business plays a major role in defining the political culture of the state.

key Terms political culture (p. 5) “traditionalistic individualistic” political culture (p. 5) provincialism (p. 6)

Practice Quiz 1. In terms of area, how does Texas rank among the

50 states? a) first b) second c) third d) fifth e) seventh

2. Provincialism refers to a) a narrow view of the world. b) a progressive view of the value of diversity. c) a pro-business political culture. d) an urban society. e) a group of counties.

Texas Political Culture

The Land

• Explain how Texas’s geography has influenced its political culture (pp. 7–12)

Because of Texas’s immense size, the state’s topography is diverse, with east Texas’s flatlands, west Texas’s arid climate, and central Texas’s Hill Country all representing diverse eco-

systems and land patterns.

key Term privatization of public property (p. 7)

Practice Quiz 3. Which of Texas’s physical regions is characterized by the

presence of many of the state’s largest ranches? a) Gulf Coastal Plains b) Great Plains c) Interior Lowlands d) Basin and Range Province e) Rio Grande Valley

4. Which of Texas’s physical regions is found in the west- ernmost part of Texas?

a) Gulf Coastal Plains b) Great Plains c) Interior Lowlands d) Basin and Range Province e) Pine Belt

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38 C H A P T E R 1 T H E P O L I T I C A L C U LT U R E , P E O P L E , A N D E C O N O M Y O F T E X A S

Economic Change in Texas

• Trace the evolution of Texas’s economy (pp. 12–21)

The Texas economy has undergone a series of technological transformations over the past 150 years. Once, the Texas economy was grounded in cotton and ranching. Oil produc- tion came to play an important role in the twentieth cen- tury. Today, high technology and international trade play important roles in the state’s economy. Texas appears to have weathered the Great Recession better than most other states.

key Term North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) (p. 18)

Practice Quiz 5. Which of the following statements is true? a) Cotton no longer plays an important role in the Texas

economy. b) Less than 2 percent of the population in Texas live

on farms and ranches. c) The Texas Railroad Commission regulates the

internet. d) Higher education has not benefited from the oil and

gas industry. e) All are true.

6. Which industry controlled the politics and economy of Texas for most of the twentieth century?

a) cotton b) cattle c) railroad d) oil e) technology

7. Which of the following statements is true? a) Oil production in Texas is less today than it was

10 years ago. b) Oil production no longer plays an important role in

the state’s economy. c) Oil has been almost totally drained from Texas oil

fields. d) The border region has become a major producer of

oil in the early twenty-first century. e) Fracking and horizontal drilling have reinvigorated

Texas’s oil industry.

8. Unlike earlier eras, the Texas economy of the twenty-first century features

a) computers, electronics, and other high-tech products.

b) transportation, oil and natural gas, and banking. c) insurance, construction, and banking. d) ranching, oil, and tourism. e) education, the military, and agriculture.

9. NAFTA refers to a) an oil company. b) an independent regulatory commission. c) an interstate road network. d) an interest group. e) an international trade agreement.

10. U.S. military bases in Texas a) have only a small impact on the Texas economy. b) are no longer important in Texas. c) are important features to many local economies

across the state. d) generate less than $1 billion in the state economy. e) promote unemployment in the state.

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39S T U DY G U I D E

urbanization

• Describe Texas’s shift from a rural society to an urban one (pp. 29–35)

Initially a rural state, Texas has urbanized, with Houston, San Antonio, Dallas–Fort Worth, and Austin representing the largest metropolitan areas in the state. This process of urbanization has changed the state’s economy from an agri - cultural powerhouse to a high-tech and innovative economy.

key Term urbanization (p. 29)

Practice Quiz 13. Urbanization refers to a process in which a) people move from rural to urban areas. b) people from the north and west move to Texas. c) people move out of urban centers to the suburbs. d) people move out of urban centers to rural areas. e) minorities assume political control of a city.

14. The four major metropolitan areas in Texas are a) Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, and

Austin. b) Houston, Dallas–Fort Worth, San Antonio, and

El Paso. c) El Paso, Houston, Lubbock, and Austin. d) San Antonio, El Paso, Houston, and Brownsville-

Harlingen-McAllen. e) San Antonio, El Paso, Dallas–Fort Worth, and

Brownsville-Harlingen-McAllen.

Who are Texans?

• Explain how the population of Texas has changed over time (pp. 21–29)

Texas demography has changed over the last century. Once dominated by Whites, Texas now has a large Latino popula- tion that, when combined with the African American popula- tion and other minorities, makes Texas a majority-minority state. Despite considerable overall wealth in Texas, Texans

tend to be younger and poorer than the average American.

key Terms empresario (p. 22) poll tax (p. 26)

Practice Quiz 11. Which of the following accounts for most of Texas’s

population growth today? a) immigration b) natural increases as a result of the difference

between births and deaths

c) domestic immigration d) NAFTA e) movement from rural to urban areas

12. Which of the following is not true? a) Latinos are increasing as a percentage of the

population in Dallas. b) More African Americans live in east Texas than in

west Texas. c) San Antonio has a larger White population than

Latino. d) Houston’s largest minority population is Latino. e) The Latino population in Texas has grown rapidly in

recent decades.

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