By

Ed Kilgore,

political columnist for Intelligencer since 2015

Better than Beto?

For people of a certain vintage, or students of history, the idea of Texas being an absolute wasteland for Democrats seems a bit strange. From Reconstruction until the 1950s, the Lone Star State was part of the Solid Democratic South. The state gave us all sorts of colorful Democratic political icons such as Ma and Pa Ferguson (Ma was elected governor of Texas after Pa was impeached and removed from office); W. Lee “Pass the Biscuits, Pappy” O’Daniel, a flour huckster; and the man O’Daniel beat in a red-hot 1941 U.S. Senate race, Lyndon B. Johnson.