Texas Exercised Its Independence

Texans have always been independent. We "Remember the Alamo," and independence is part of our state's identity. Over the years, Texas has been reliably red, and one might argue it has become a place where a political party could count on our votes before it even knew who it was going to put on the ballot.

Last Tuesday, it couldn't.

Some Republicans stayed home. Derek Ryan, a Republican data guru, estimated that about 625,000 Republicans sat out this election. I know a few. They couldn't bring themselves to vote for a Democrat, and they felt like the Republicans were offering them nothing. So they stayed home.

Other Republicans crossed party lines. Whether it was data centers or public education, some Republicans simply agreed with what Democrats were saying. In rural Texas, I heard that some Republicans didn't trust Abbott to protect Texans from the impacts of data centers after he'd welcomed Texas as the industry's epicenter. They also had a voucher hangover and questioned whether their own party was still on the same page with them on public education.

Nearly three in ten Texas voters described themselves as independent or something other than Republican or Democrat. That's roughly 2.9 million people. About one in seven voters said this was the first midterm they'd ever voted in. While some longtime voters decided to sit this one out, a lot of Texans decided this was the year to show up.

All of these voters exercised their independence, and they decided Tuesday's election. And here's what I find shocking in a state that's been so reliably red. In every one of our 254 counties, the margin in the U.S. Senate race moved toward the Democrat compared with the 2024 presidential vote.

You could see the shift even in rural, red Hansford County, where I live. Abbott still won 81 percent of the vote here. In 2022, 91 people voted for Beto O'Rourke. This year, 253 voted for Gina Hinojosa. That's 162 more votes in one small county. Add up shifts like that across rural Texas, and you can see how much was happening in counties that still showed up red on the map.

So what happens when both parties have to govern Texas again? I remember what that looked like.

When I worked in the state Capitol in the 1990s, George W. Bush was a Republican governor. Bob Bullock, the lieutenant governor, was a Democrat. So was House Speaker Pete Laney, who came from Hale Center in the Texas Panhandle. They worked together on public education, juvenile justice, and water. If the governor wanted to get something through the House, he had to deal with a Democrat from Hale Center. And the Democrat from Hale Center had to deal with him. 
Republicans took control one piece at a time. Bush beat Ann Richards in 1994. Republicans took the Texas Senate in 1997 and swept the statewide races in 1998. Democrats still held the House under Laney. It took the 2002 election to give Republicans the House. When lawmakers came back in January 2003, Republicans controlled both chambers and the governor's office.

Come January, Democrats will have the governor's office and the House. Republicans will have the Senate. There are already signs that some of them are willing to work together. Republicans stood alongside Democrat Senfronia Thompson when she said she had the votes for speaker. The governor-elect named Ernest Bailes, a rural Republican who fought vouchers, to her transition team. I'd like to see the House give committee chairs to members of both parties again. Who knows the issue? Who can get a bill through committee that people on both sides can live with?

The tension between parties and the checks and balances of our government are a healthy part of our democracy. One might argue that one-party rule in Texas didn't serve Texans well and that working together again might be the medicine we need to keep Texas a state we can be proud of. 

When one party can count on our votes, how hard does anybody in Austin have to listen when we tell them what's happening in our schools or what we're worried about with our water?

After all, there's really so much we agree on. We want good public schools. We want a hospital close enough to get to in an emergency. We want a say in what happens to our land and water. We can argue about how to do all of that. I expect we will.

But if Democrats come away from this election thinking they can count on those votes next time, they ought to ask Republicans how that worked out for them last Tuesday.

Texans already knew how to think for themselves. Austin just got a reminder.

About the Author 
Suzanne Bellsnyder is editor and publisher of the Hansford County Reporter-Statesman and Sherman County Gazette. A former Capitol staffer with decades of experience in Texas politics and policy, she now focuses on how state decisions shape rural life through her newspapers and Texas Rural Reporter column. Subscribe at TexasRuralReporter.Substack.com.