Religion and Politics in Rural West Texas

Until the appearance of the abortion issue, religion was never a consideration in West Texas politics. The election of John F. Kennedy as President made a small ripple among Protestants because of their concerns over electing a Catholic. That issue soon was put to rest by Kennedy and the way he ran his administration. It was a long time between Kennedy and the Moral Majority, but the groundwork for change was being laid even then.

During this period, the Republican Party was, in general, never much of a force in West Texas. Most offices were filled by Democrats – the occasional Republican candidate failed to gain much support because voters traditionally voted Democrat. The political philosophy at that time was framed by the experiences of the Great Depression, and pocketbook issues and care for the common man. Back then, people were linked to the Democratic Party by the real, tangible things Roosevelt had accomplished in bringing the United States out of the Depression.

In my estimation, there were three main issues that changed the political climate in Texas from being primarily Democratic to predominately Republican: religion, immigration and the liberalization of the Democratic Party, with religion seeming to be the chief among these and what I concern myself with here.

Certainly there are some issues that seem more immediate from time to time: for instance, rural residents and the large gun lover constituency were heavily influenced by the stands each party took on gun issues, and these issues still influence voters today. President Bill Clinton banned some assault weapons, and President George Bush let that ban expire, and each acted generally according to their party’s position.

However, nothing is more personal or heated than religion. Abortion, the backbone of religious concerns, became the much larger issue in the 1960’s and 70’s, and it still exists today in the minds of many people in West Texas and all over the South. Roe vs. Wade was and is hugely polarizing. The strong pro-life campaigns of the likes of Jerry Falwell, James Dobson, Pat Robertson and others made a deep impression on church-going people.

In my own personal experience, I saw attempts by some groups to take over the Democratic precinct and county conventions for the purpose of sending pro-life delegations to the state convention. In some counties they were somewhat successful, but because they were single-issue delegations, they could not sustain their strength when larger issues began to take precedence. They soon reverted to other means of pushing their agendas.

Following the national GOP program of branding anyone who disagreed with them as evil and ungodly, they began working in local churches. Their theme was this: Democrats favor abortion (or poor morals in general) and Republicans stand for Christian principles and family values; therefore, anyone who runs as a Democrat or supports a Democratic candidate cannot be a Christian.

It played well, and many voters who had forgotten or never knew what the Democratic Party had done for this country in the previous 50 years changed allegiance to the Republican Party. For this reason, we have seen county after county first support state and national Republican candidates and then local Republicans until most West Texas counties had many or all local offices filled by Republicans.

Fortunately, in 2006, there was evidence that the voting public was placing ethics, integrity, and honest government over religious concerns when picking a candidate to support. One can find no better evidence of this than the Texas House District 85 race. There, Jim Landtroop, a heavily favored Republican, lost to Democratic former County Judge Joe Heflin. They were running for Speaker Pete Laney’s seat. This happened even though Landtroop had four times as much money as Heflin – Heflin still won by 221 votes out of 28,000 cast. Many young, deeply religious Republicans decided that their children and the education system in Texas were more important than a candidate’s religious rhetoric.

As the 2008 election looms nearer, issues such as the war in Iraq, immigration, education, and the environment seem to be items of conversation. Religious issues are seldom mentioned, but as candidates make their platforms known, there will be surely some who try to play those religious issues again. It will be interesting to see how well they do.