1964 United States presidential election in Texas

[kentuck]

<snip>
The 1964 United States presidential election in Texas was held on November 3, 1964, as part of the United States presidential election of 1964. The Democratic Party candidate, incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson, comfortably won his home state of Texas with 63.32% of the vote against the Republican Party candidate, Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, who won 36.5%, giving him the state's 25 electoral votes and a victory margin of 26.8%.[1] President Lyndon B. Johnson won the 1964 election in a massive landslide, carrying 44 states plus the District of Columbia, which participated for the first time. Goldwater only carried his home state of Arizona along with five Deep South states which had been historically Democratic, but defected to the Republican Party due to the Democratic Party’s support for civil rights.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_United_States_presidential_election_in_Texas


Texas was almost all blue in 1964.

[onetexan]

1. Midwesterners who relocated to Tx for jobs brought their

Conservative views w them. The GOP's southern strategy contributed to it as well. The corruption of the republicans in gerrymandering and suppressing votes over time turned Tx red. My belief is if the Dem. Candidate can win Tx he/she will win the presidency.

[El Supremo]

2. Texas had been Democratic since the late 1800's.

John Tower was the first Republican Senator since Reconstruction.

The general election was only a formality since the Democrat always won. The Democratic primary was the real election. I remember they made the general election easy for you with a handle in the voting machine that would cast your vote for all the Democrats (or Republicans).

[SCantiGOP]

3. If we could just cut off that little top square

and give it to Oklahoma, we could probably have Texas as a blue state now.

On edit: this is 1964, so the results are even more remarkable since almost no African Americans were voting in TX, and probably not a majority of eligible Hispanics.
But the other thing that occurred in 1964? The signing of the Voting Rights Act, where LBJ famously noted that the Dems had probably lost the South for a generation (we are now at 2-3 generations and the Democrats fighting for free elections is still the reason the South votes GOP).

[walkingman]

4. When I was transferred to Houston, Texas in 1974 this was an entirely different place. Of course

things change over time but I think the big turning point was the election of Reagan in '80. Along with him came Karl Rove and his ilk. Texas began to see former Dems turn to GOP and we dealt with the likes of Phil Gramm, Bill Clements, Clayton Williams, etc. They attracted former Democrats that bought the "family values crock of shit" hook, line, and sinker. In the meantime Texas got politically nastier and nastier. The final straw was the the crucifixion of Ann Richards - name calling, lies, and ultimately George W. Bush. Texas had become almost unrecognizable. Not only politically but socially - I lived it and should have left at that point. After "W" then we followed the "dunceville" attitudes of "W" by electing Rick Perry would would serve as Gov. the next 15 years (longest serving Gov in Texas history). He was then followed by Greg Abbott. We are now truly a backwards state maybe only exceeded by Mississippi in terms of regressive ideology and that is debatable.

I hope I live long enough to see it change but I wouldn't bet on it. The far right have become almost a cult here. Thankfully most urban area reject this crazy but Texas is dominated politically by rural areas and with the coming green light for gerrymandering I suspect that will get even worse.

[JI7]

5. that was when there were racist Democrats and liberal Republicans