The History of Texas and Progressive Politics
The story of progressive ideology in Texas is a roller coaster. We begin our story in 1976, the last time Texas went blue for a presidential candidate. Progressives in the state were riding high on the Jimmy Carter election, hoping to take this momentum into the future. Unknowing to them, the election of 1976 would usher in a massive red wave that would eclipse any hope for progressives for nearly forty years.
In 2008, the Obama campaign renewed hope that there was a progressive future in the state. During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama was the first Democrat since Lyndon B. Johnson to win Texas’s biggest urban counties. At this point, conservatives and Republicans in the state began to worry their power would quickly fade away. Little did they know a new political movement was emerging that would take back everything the Democrats gained.
2014 was not a good year for progressives in Texas. For six years, the newly founded Tea Party was spreading throughout the conservative United States. After the 2014 election, Republicans wiped out over 20 years of progress for the progressive movement and made connections with minority voters. The Tea Party’s domination made many progressives think it was over in the state of Texas for good, but who could have predicted Donald Trump.
The 2016 election was strange, to say the least. Donald Trump was not the typical candidate that you could fit neatly into a box. Mr. Trump flowed from demographic to demographic, making both enemies and friends. One group that was not thrilled about Donald Trump were citizens located in urban areas and suburbs. While Texas still voted for Donald Trump, it was the smallest margin in Texas history. This was due to the fact that many of the cities and suburbs voted for Hillary Clinton.
The momentum the progressives took in 2016 has not slowed down. In 2018, the Democrats were able to take several house seats and shorten the margin in many others.
Now, with progressives flocking from California to join the booming tech market in Austin and Dallas, it seems the momentum is not going to die anytime soon. As the subject of big tech’s power grows larger in our society, you need to ask one question. Will the progressives coming to Texas continue the current trend in tech, or will Texas become the conservative tech harbor in the United States?