Texas: Government, Politics, and Higher Education

The present constitution of Texas was adopted in 1876, replacing the “carpetbag” constitution of 1869. The state's executive branch is headed by a governor elected for a four-year term. The state's legislature has a senate with 31 members and a house with 150 representatives. The state elects 2 senators and 36 representatives to the U.S. Congress and has 38 electoral votes. Texas politics were dominated by Democrats from the end of Reconstruction into the 1960s, but Republicans achieved parity in the 1990s and then dominance.

Among the many institutions of higher learning in Texas are the Univ. of Texas, mainly at Austin, but with large branches at Arlington, El Paso, and the Dallas suburb of Richardson; Baylor Univ., at Waco; East Texas State Univ., at Commerce; Univ. of North Texas, at Denton; Rice Univ., at Houston; Southern Methodist Univ., at Dallas; Texas A&M Univ., at College Station; Texas Arts and Industries Univ., at Kingsville; Texas Christian Univ., at Fort Worth; and Texas Southern Univ. and the Univ. of Houston, both at Houston.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Industry in the Late Twentieth Century
• Oil, Industrialization, and World Wars
• The Late Nineteenth Century
• Civil War and Reconstruction
• The Texas Republic and U.S. Annexation
• Independence from Mexico
• American Expeditions and Settlement
• Spanish Exploration and Colonization
• Government, Politics, and Higher Education
• Economy
• Places of Interest
• West Texas
• High Plains
• Blackland Prairies
• Rio Grande Valley
• Gulf Coast
• East Texas
• Geography
• Facts and Figures
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Political Geography