Texas GOP bets on hard right turn amid changing demographics

By WILL WEISSERT and PAUL J. WEBER
Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republicans in America’s largest conservative state for years racked up victories under the slogan “Keep Texas Red,” a pledge to quash a coming blue wave that Democrats argued was inevitable given shifting demographics. Now, those population transformations have arrived, with the 2020 census confirming that the state got bigger, more suburban and far more diverse. Yet a more apt state GOP rallying cry for today might be “Make Texas Even Redder.” Faced with a demographic threat to their party’s dominance, Texas Republicans could be trying to tiptoe to the center. Instead, they have championed a bevy of boundary-pushing conservative policymaking.