Agenda

• This Video: The Texas Legislature

    - Brief history of Texas and discussion of Texas Demographic
    - Constitutional basis
    - Comparison to US Congress
    - Interesting features
    - Current events

Brief history of Texas

• Texas was a part of Mexico until 1836

    - Texas part of Spanish Empire until 1821
    - Mexican Texas and the Texas Revolution
    - Texas Republic 1836-1845
    - Annexation by United States 1845
    - Civil War and Reconstruction 1861-1870

Texas is a large, diverse, and growing state

• population 31 million in 2024
• population 29.36 million in 2020
• 2nd largest state by area
• 2nd largest state by population

Majority-minority state

• Texas is a majority-minority state¹

    - Hispanic or Latino: 11,441,717 (39.8% in 2024)
    - White (not Hispanic or Latino): 11,584,597 (39.6% in 2024)
    - Black or African-American: 3,552,997
    - Two or more races: 5,133,738
    - Asian: 1,585,480
    - Some other race: 3,951,366
    - American Indian and Alaska Native: 278,948
    - Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: 33,611

Texas Lanugage diversity

• Language Other Than English Spoken at Home in Texas: 35.4% ± 0.2%

    - Spanish 28.2%
    - Other Indo-European 2.7%
    - Asian and Pacific Island languages 3.3%
    - Other languages 1.2%

• Language Other Than English Spoken at Home in United States: 22.5% ± 0.1%

• Ballots statewide are printed in English and Spanish

• Harris County (Houston) ballots are printed in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese

• Over 145 languages spoken in Houston by native speakers

The Texas Legislature: Constitutional Basis

• US Constitution Article I

    - establishes the Congress
    - lists Congressional powers
    - structure of Congress - bicameral
    - Congress not subject to executive

• Texas Constitution Article III

    - establishes the legislature
    - lists legislative powers
    - structure of legislature - bicameral
    - limits length of sessions
    - limits salaries of legislators
    - legislature is subject to comptroller of public accounts

Why a legislature?

• What is a legislatures primary responsibility?

• Why do we choose representatives to fill this role?

    - Why does representation matter?
    - Why a large legislature instead of a smaller council?
    - Why two chambers: House and Senate?

• What is important in a representative?

    - What are the most important qualities?
    - What are the least important qualities?

Texas’s Legislature Terms and Sessions

Salaries, Compensation, and Staff

Representation in Texas

• Texas is a majority-minority state¹

    - American Indian and Alaska Native: 278,948
    - Asian: 1,585,480
    - Black or African-American: 3,552,997
    - Hispanic or Latino: 11,441,717
    - Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander: 33,611
    - White (not Hispanic or Latino): 11,584,597
    - Some other race: 3,951,366
    - Two or more races: 5,133,738

Representation in Texas

• 2023 State Legislature

    - 70% male
    - 54% white
    - white male: nearly half

Representation in Texas

Gender History in Texas Legislature: from Texas Tribune

Questions

• Does it seem likely that this is because people want to elect white males or because they want to elect Republicans and white males dominate the Republican primaries?

• Is this more of a long run problem for voters or for the Republican Party?

• Why are minority voters willing to vote for white male Republicans over minority Democrats?

• Is this a problem for the Democratic Party?

Authorship and License

Do not submit to Quizlet, Chegg, Coursehero, or other similar commercial websites.

• Author: Tom Hanna

• Website: tomhanna.me

Graphics Credit: Unless otherwise noted graphics are from Norton Publishers

• License: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.