Texas Almanac, 1958-1959 Page: 451
This book is part of the collection entitled: Texas Almanac and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Political Parties- Polities
Political history in Texas during ,1956 and
the early part of 1957 was characterized by a
continuation of the sharp conflict between the
conservative and liberal wings of the Demo-
cratic Party with the conservatives controll-
ing, though less securely than during the 1952
and 1954 campaign years. The conflict in the
Democratic Party brought renewed agitation
for a two-party system, and in several state
and district elections the Republican vote was
swelled by bolting Democrats.
Political high point of 1956 was the carry-
ing of the state by Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Republican nominee for President, over Adlai
Stevenson, Democratic nominee. This paral-
leled the Texas victory of gisenhower over
Stevenson in 1952. Conservatives controlled
the May and September Delhbcratic state con-
ventions held at Dallas and Fort Worth, re-
spectively.
However, a course of "moderation" was fol-
lowed. The May convention instructed the
delegation to the national convention to cast
its vote for Sen. Lyndon Johnson for the
presidential nomination as long as he re-
mained in the race, and loyalty to the
eventual national nominee was pledged. The
September convention of 1952 had called for
support of Republican nominee, Dwight D.
Eisenhower, while merely recognizing Adlai
Stevenson as the nominee of the Democratic
Party.
Political Races-1956 and 1957
United States Sen. Price Daniel made the
race for Governor in 1956 and defeated Ralph
W. Yarborough in the runoff primary by a
close margin, which assured his victory in the
general election on Nov. 6. (See p. 459-460.)
Yarborough had been twice defeated for
Governor before, in races against Gov. Allan
Shivers in 1952 and 1954. However, when
Daniel resigned from the Senate to take his
seat as Governor, Yarborough entered the
race in the special election, April 2, 1957, to
fill the place made vacant in the Senate, and
won the contest in which eighteen candidates
continued until election day. (See p. 455.)
A heated political issue of 1956 and 1957
arose over racial segregation and desegrega-
tion, or integration, in the public schools of
the state. It was brought on by the decision
of the United States Supreme Court in 1954
voiding state segregation laws.
Pursuant to a petition signed by more than
165,000 persons, the State Democratic Execu-
tive Committee placed three referendums on
the ballot in the first Democratic primary on
the questions of whether the Legislature
should take action (1) to pass a law to ex-
empt children from compulsory attendance at
desegregated schools. (2) to strengthen laws
against intermarriage of white and Negro per-
sons and (3) to invoke some form of inter-
position to halt federal encroachment on
States' rights. The term, interposition, as
used in this referendum, referred to the doc-
trine under which state sovereignty is relied
upon to shield the citizen against civil or
criminal accountability to the federal jurisdic-
tion in matters reserved to the states by the
Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the
United States. All three referendums received
an affirmative vote. (See p. 455, 456,
Democratic Party in Texas
Historically, Texas has been a 1-party state,
supporting the Democratic Party as a mem-
ber of the "Solid-South." Texas was settled
primarily by immigrants from the Old South.
am Houston was a close friend of President
Andrew Jackson, and the Democratic Party
of the United States was favorable to the an-
nexation of Texas as a "slave state." The
issue of Texas annexation was settled in the
United States when James K. Polk, Demo-
cratic nominee for President, won in 1844.
Texas was, later a companion of other South-
ern, Democratic states during the period of-secession. War Between the States and "Re-
construction."
Economic pressure also contributed to the
state's long loyalty to the Democratic Party.
As a region dependent primarily upon the
nation's principal export crop, cotton, Texas
logically went along with its sister Southern
States in opposition to Republican Party
tariff policies.
Changing political conditions, including the
cleavage between many Southern Democratic
leaders and Democratic leaders of the North,
has had its influence in Texas in recent years.
There has grown up also a sentiment for a
2-party state as a better political system than
the old 1-party allegiance to which Texas had
adhered throughout most of its history.
Republican Victories
Eisenhower's victory in Texas in 1956 was
the third successful contest by the Republican
Party in a presidential race in this state. The
two former instances were Eisenhower's vic-
tory in 1952 and Herbert Hoover's victory
over Alfred E. Smith, Democratic nominee in
1928.
Since the end of the Reconstruction period,
with the defeat of E. J. Davis (Rep.) by
Richard Coke (Dem.) in 1873, the Democratic
Party, has won all races for Governor. (Prior
to the War Between the States, in 1859. Sam
Houston, running as an independent but with
Know-Nothing Party support, defeated Hardin
Runnels, the Democratic nominee.)
Republican nominees seriously threatened
Democratic supremacy in 1924 and 1932. The
political-personal issue of "Fergusonism" was
the cause of defection from the Democratic
Party ranks in each instance, though the is-
sue of Ku-Kluxism also entered into the 1924
race, when Mrs. Miriam A. Ferguson defeated
the Ku Klux Klan candidate in the Demo-
cratic primaries and presented many people
with the difficult question of accepting a re-
turn of Ferguson policies as the alternative
to defeating the KKK. However, the Repub-
lican nominee, George C. Butte, was defeated
by Mrs. Ferguson in 1924 by a vote of 422,558
to 294,970, and Republican nominee, Orville C.
Bullington was defeated by Mrs. Ferguson in
1932, 528,996 to 317,807.
Party Primaries
Prior to 1906 party nominations in Texas
were made in convention. In 1906 a combina-
tion of primary election and convention nomi.
nation was set up, but amended by the fol-
lowing Legislature, and the state's first out-
right popular primary election was held in
1908. (See index for Terrell election law.)
Under this law the winner in the primary, by
either outright majority or mere plurality,
was declared the nominee of the party. In
1918, this law was amended to provide for the
double primary system which is still in use.
If no candidate receives a majority of all
votes cast in the first primary, the two high-
est candidates enter the second, or run-off
primary. The first primary is always held on
the fourth Saturday in July. The second pri-
mary is held on the fourth Saturday in Au-
gust.
Under the state law, the holding of a pri-
mary election is mandatory if a party's
candidate for Governor received as much as
200,000 votes in the next preceding general
election. The figure was fixed at 200,000 by
the Forty-ninth Legislature in 1945. Prior to
that date, the number had been fixed at 100.-
000. (A party casting between 10,000 and 200,-
000 votes for any candidate for Governor may,
at its option, select its candidates by primary
election or convention, for the next succeed-
ing general election.)
The Republican Party in Texas has held
four primary elections under this law, in 1926,
1930, 1934 and 1954, and (as of date of pub-
lication of this volume) was scheduled to hold
its fifth primary in 1958 because its nominee
451
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Texas Almanac, 1958-1959, book, 1957; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117139/m1/453/?q=interposition: accessed July 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.