The Story:
This will conclude our three-day examination of the controversy in Texas over a measure the sponsors call a election integrity bill, and that its opponents call voter suppression, which recently failed of passage during the regular session of the Texas legislature. (It may yet be reconsidered during a special session, on the discretion of the Governor.) Today we pull back for a “Big Picture” look at this controversy.
Background:
Texas as long been considered a “red” state on the electoral map: that is, a state safely in the Republican Party’s column both in Presidential election and in the party identification of its two US Senators (now Ted Cruz and John Cornyn). But the demographics of the state have been changing: younger adults from more-liberal places have been moving into the state in recent years. Also, the proportion of persons of color to white people is changing in favor of the former. Although voting blocs defined by demographics are of course not monolithic, these changes are likely predictive of a change in the political balance of power toward more “liberal” views.
The Thing to Know:
In 2018, Senator Ted Cruz (R) won re-election by a remarkably narrow margin, receiving less than 51% of the vote. This suggested to many observers that the state had turned “purple,” a mesh of red and blue. The lawful conditions of voting have become a hotly contested matter, understandably, as the Republicans press to keep their red states predictably red.
