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  • Book cover of Red State

    A political scientist and Republican party insider examines how Texas made its dramatic shift from Democratic stronghold to GOP dominance. In November 1960, the Democratic party dominated Texas. Democrats held all thirty statewide elective positions as well as the entire state legislature. Fifty years later, this stronghold had not only been lost—it had reversed. In November 2010, Republicans controlled every statewide elective office, as well as the Texas Senate and House of Representatives. The state’s congressional delegation in Washington was comprised of twenty-five Republicans and nine Democrats. Red State explores why this transformation took place and what these changes imply for the future of Texas politics. Wayne Thorburn analyzes a wealth of data to show how changes in the state’s demographics—including an influx of new residents, the shift from rural to urban, and the growth of the Mexican American population—have moved Texas through three stages of party competition, from two-tiered politics to two-party competition, and then to the return to one-party dominance, this time by Republicans. Thorburn reveals that the shift from Democratic to Republican governance has been driven not by any change in Texans’ ideological perspective or public policy orientation—even when Texans were voting Democrat, conservatives outnumbered liberals or moderates—but by the Republican party’s increasing identification with conservatism since 1960.

  • Book cover of The Republican Party of Texas

    On July 4, 1867, a group of men assembled in Houston to establish the Republican Party of Texas. Combatting entrenched statewide support for the Democratic Party and their own internal divisions, Republicans struggled to gain a foothold in the Lone Star State, which had sided with the Confederacy and aligned with the Democratic platform. In The Republican Party of Texas, Wayne Thorburn, former executive director of the Texas GOP, chronicles over one hundred and fifty years of the defeats and victories of the party that became the dominant political force in Texas in the modern era. Thorburn documents the organizational structure of the Texas GOP, drawing attention to prominent names, such as Harry Wurzbach and George W. Bush, alongside lesser-known community leaders who bolstered local support. The 1960s and 1970s proved a watershed era for Texas Republicans as they shored up ideological divides and elected the first Republican governor and more state senators and congressional representatives than ever before. From decisions about candidates and shifting allegiances and political stances, to race-based divisions and strategic cooperation with leaders in the Democratic Party, Thorburn unearths the development of the GOP in Texas to understand the unique Texan conservatism that prevails today.

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  • Book cover of A Generation Awakes

    The education/political action organization Young Americans for Freedom, founded in 1960, helped forge the growing conservative movement into a political force that seized control of a party, elected one of their own to the presidency and, in the process, changed the world. This is the first comprehensive history of YAF, from which also came 27 members of Congress, eight U.S. Circuit Court judges, a Vice President of the United States, governors, numerous media figures and journalists, college presidents and professors, authors and many of the leaders of the major conservative organizations in the United States today.Following its founding fifty years ago, hundreds of thousands of students were first influenced by YAF in high schools and on college campuses, next leading to their involvement in the 1964 Goldwater campaign, the successful U.S. Senate campaign of James Buckley in New York, and eventually the 1980 presidenial campaign and administration of Ronald Reagan.Praised by prominent historians and journalists , this book will come to be regarded as an essential resource for an understanding of 20th Century American politics.

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