<P> In a reversal of alignments, since the late 1960s the Republican Party has grown more prominent within the state based on an influx of primarily white voters (the majority in the state) from the Democratic Party . By the mid-1990s, it became the state's dominant political party . This trend mirrors a national political realignment that has seen the once solidly "Dixiecrat" Democratic South, initially dependent on disfranchisement of minorities, become increasingly dominated by Republicans . But growth among the Hispanic or Latino population in Texas, whose voters favor the Democratic Party, may shift party alignments in the long term . </P> <P> The 19th - century culture of the state was heavily influenced by the plantation culture of the Old South, dependent on African - American slave labor, as well as the patron system once prevalent (and still somewhat present) in northern Mexico and South Texas . In these societies the government's primary role was seen as being the preservation of social order . Solving of individual problems in society was seen as a local problem with the expectation that the individual with wealth should resolve his or her own issues . These influences continue to affect Texas today . In their book, Texas Politics Today 2009 - 2010, authors Maxwell, Crain, and Santos attribute Texas' traditionally low voter turnout among whites to these influences . But beginning in the early 20th century, voter turnout was dramatically reduced by the state legislature's disenfranchisement of most blacks, and many poor whites and Latinos . </P> <P> From 1848 until Richard M. Nixon's victory in 1972, Texas voted for the Democratic candidate for president in every election except 1928, when it did not support Catholic Al Smith . The state had a white majority and Democrats re-established their dominance after the Civil War . In the mid-20th century 1952 and 1956 elections, the state voters joined the landslide for Dwight D. Eisenhower . (Texas did not vote in 1864 and 1868 due to the Civil War and Reconstruction). </P> <P> In the post-Civil War era, two of the most important Republican figures in Texas were African Americans George T. Ruby and Norris Wright Cuney . Ruby was a black community organizer, director in the federal Freedmen's Bureau, and leader of the Galveston Union League . His protégé Cuney was a mulatto whose wealthy, white planter father freed him and his siblings before the Civil War and arranged for his education in Pennsylvania . Cuney returned and settled in Galveston, where he became active in the Union League and the Republican party; he rose to the leadership of the party . He became influential in Galveston and Texas politics, and is widely regarded as one of the most influential black leaders in the South during the 19th century . </P>

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