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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

A Brief History Of Democrats

Whenever we hear stories about “the good old days,” they always involve some sort of line meant to make you feel lazy. Lines such as “I had to walk a mile through the rain and snow,” or “you kids don’t know how easy you have it,” are not unfamiliar to us. In some cases, though, the good old days were easier than they are now. For a long stretch of Texas history, Democrats were in control of government from the state house all the way to the governor. It makes a loyal young Democrat like me wonder: what kind of weather did Texas Democrats have to endure back then?

Texas has been a Democratic stronghold for a long time, stemming all the way from the formation of Texas as a state. “The Republicans back then were not even a viable organization,” says Chandler Davidson, author of Race and Class In Texas Politics. “The Democratic Party in Texas had three wings to it that basically satisfied everyone: there were liberals, conservatives, and moderates all within the one party.”

Even if you didn’t agree with everything that the party was doing, it was necessary to run as a Democrat “because you had to… in order to win,” according to Molly Beth Malcolm, former state party chair. Republicans have found themselves enjoying similar prominence and political domination for many years, as the shift in partisan power was absolute. However, from 1848 to 1972, Democratic dominance in the state was complete, and Democrats held most or all major elected offices.

When taking a closer look, we can see that there were three essential factors that contributed to continued Democratic control: statewide organization, primaries, and the issues. How were these three factors so different in the past?

Statewide Organization

According to Malcolm, the state party organization was not historically a strong organizing force; rather, the party was “controlled by who the governor was at the time.” Since the governor was always a Democrat, he or she commonly called the shots for any movements within the party.

Ken Molberg, State Democratic Executive Committeeman from Senate District 23 in Dallas, claims “the party really only played what role the governor wanted it to,” and that “the whole party was primarily affected by the governor.” He went on, saying that “the governor even decided basically who the chairman of the party was going to be,” and that “the first really elected chairman to the Democratic state party was Bob Slagle.”

Amber Moon, Communications Director for the Texas Democratic Party, agrees with the history and points to new developments. “The party used to really revolve around one alpha Democrat, one big office holder. What we're trying to do and what we've been very successful at doing so far is building the kind of infrastructure that keeps the Democratic Party strong from election cycle to election cycle. That way we never have to recreate the wheel, and we have the kind of party that can view elections in the short term and the long term. When you revolve around one candidate or elected official, that's very hard. For us, that really means engaging Democrats at the grassroots — the Party has to have a solid foundation, made up of the entire party and all Democrats from around the state.”

Primaries

Even the manner in which elections took place was completely different in Texas. Instead of a major battle during the general election, the main fight took place during the primaries. Since everyone was a Democrat, the primaries were always a knock-down drag-out war between the different wings of the Democratic Party.

Molberg describes his experiences growing up as a Democrat in the Texas Hill Country Texas as “always a battle of liberal versus conservative Democrats instead of Democrats versus Republicans.” But, even though there were both liberal and conservative Democrats in the party, some of the differences that separated the party were not the differences that separate Democrats and Republicans today.

Molberg recalls Democratic primary elections as being “basically the working class versus big business interests,” because the voting base was primarily constructed of the “have-nots” and the “have-a-lots”. The primaries were where candidates spent the most money and the politics got the dirtiest, because after they were over, the road to a Democratic victory was a cakewalk.

The Issues

People usually come to politics by way of issues. As a party, we have a strong and storied history of championing civil rights, fairness and safety in the work place, and many other issues that affect the lives of everyday citizens.

“An ideological conflict within the Democratic party has continued from the 1940s to the present,” states Davidson. Sometimes, we get so wrapped up in the issues that we forget that we have to win before we can focus on them. Since Democrats had such a sizable advantage back then, however, the popular issues of the day are worth examining.

An obvious issue addressed in the Democratic Party platform would be war. Support for the Vietnam War was a clear divider between the parties. The trends in the state show that Texas voted for the Democratic candidate for president every year during that period, except for when the nation was at war or during non-peacetime. The more liberal members of the Democratic Party were opposed to sales taxes, while both wings were concerned with the minimum wage.

Several influential individuals that many of us would refer to as the most prominent Democrats of the 20th century came from Texas. President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President John Nance Garner, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senator Ralph Yarborough were all Texans. Though we may not see it on the surface, the works of these great leaders is still felt throughout our state.

Some of the largest impact of the progressive reign in Texas is seen in our state universities, mass media, attorneys, public school programs, and professors. The presence of the Democratic Party and our ability to be a strong force will be there until we take hold of the Lone Star State again, and repaint Texas blue.

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