The Significance and Impact of Women
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THE SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF WOMEN ON THE RISE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IN TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXAS Kristi Throne Strickland, B.B.A., M.A. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2000 APPROVED: Ronald E. Marcello, Major Professor and Chair Donald K. Pickens, Committee Member Randolph B. Campbell, Committee Member Alexandra Leavell, Committee Member Elizabeth Esterchild, Committee Member Richard M. Golden, Chair of the Department of History C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Strickland, Kristi Throne, The Significance and Impact of Women on the Rise of the Republican Party in Twentieth Century Texas. Doctor of Philosophy (History), August, 2000, 267 pp., references, 180 titles. During the early twentieth century, the Democratic party dominated the conservative political landscape of Texas. Through the 1920s, members of the Republican party focused on patronage and seemed content to maintain the position of minority party. A growing dissatisfaction with the liberal policies of the New Deal during the 1930s created opportunities for state Republicans to woo dissenting Democrats to their side. With a change of leadership within the state GOP after 1950, the Republicans waged serious campaigns for offices for the first time. Republican men exercised their political yearnings through leadership positions. Women, on the other hand, were shut out of the leadership ranks, and, as a consequence, they chose a traditional female strategy. They organized clubs in order to support the new leadership and rising candidates. Against formidable odds, Republican women acted as foot soldiers and worked diligently to attain their objectives. As early as 1920, Texas Republican women began to organize. In 1938 they joined the newly chartered National Federation of Republican Women. In 1955 Texas women organized the Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW). Working through the TFRW, the women became the catalysts that broke the Republican party from its state of inertia, and they significantly contributed to the breakdown of the one-party system in Texas. Willing to do the “shoe leather politicking” necessary for victory, women became invaluable to GOP candidates, who began their campaigns in the clubhouses of Republican women. In 1978, with the election of the first Republican governor in a century, Republicans finally brought competitive politics to Texas. By the 1990s, the GOP became the majority party in the state. Republican women were not only important to the growth of the party, they were the driving force that broke the state from the shackles of one-party rule by winning elections through grassroots efforts. This study fully recognizes the rich contribution women made to Texas politics throughout the twentieth century. Copyright 2000 By Kristi Throne Strickland ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION . 4 2. “ORGANIZED WOMEN”: A MODEL FOR THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF REPUBLICAN WOMEN . .12 3. THE EVOLUTION OF THE TEXAS GOP, 1874-1954 . 45 4. GROWING AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL, 1920-1938 . 86 5. THE COURSE TO STATEWIDE FEDERATION, 1938-1955 . 104 6. THE SOFTENING OF DEMOCRATIC SOLIDITY, 1956-1968 . 141 7. THE MAKING OF A TWO-PARTY STATE, 1968-1978 . .184 8. CONCLUSIONS OF A CENTURY-LONG STRUGGLE, 1978-1996 . 223 BIBLIOGRAPHY . .250 iii CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In October 1955, Republican women from across Texas gathered in San Antonio and listened to a prophetic message. They heard that their efforts would be the “most effective sparkplug Texas had ever had to bring about a two-party system.” Katherine Brown, regional director of the National Federation of Republican Women (NFRW), made this prediction before the Texas Conference of Republican Women. For many years conservative women across the state met locally in attempts to learn more about the Republican party, but they never had a state organization that could pull together all their efforts. Finally, in the fall of 1955, seventeen years after the formation of the NFRW, the Texas women met and organized their own coalition. In creating the newly formed Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW), conservative females made Texas the forty-first state to unite its clubs into a state federation. Through their cumulative efforts, the women became the catalysts that broke the Republican party from its state of inertia, and they significantly contributed to the breakdown of the one-party system in Texas.1 For more than half of the twentieth century, Texas had only one party and one political philosophy. Whether members of the majority party, the Democrats, or of the minority party, the Republicans, Texans were conservative. Most favored a very limited governmental role in the personal and professional lives of individuals. Texas 1“Texans Urged to Join Ike’s Crusade,” San Antonio Express, October 21, 1955. 4 conservatives traditionally followed the principles of “rugged individualism.” In an adherence to the strong belief of self-reliance, they were hostile toward labor legislation and labor unions, against the rise of the welfare system, and opposed to increased social services. Furthermore, they resented paying for governmental programs through increased taxation. Also, they did not see the necessity of catering to minorities through civil rights legislation. Overall, they believed that each individual was responsible for paying his or her way. Nationally, there was a growing contingent of Democratic liberals whose beliefs were diametrically opposed to the Texas conservatives, both Republicans and Democrats alike. Thus, political distinctions in the state were typically based on patronage. When a Republican president was in power, more Republicans frequented precinct, county, and state conventions, as well as the polling booths. Although the GOP was well established on the national level, the party in the Lone Star State did not conduct its first primary until 1956. There was, however, a long history of conservatism in the state, and the modern Republican party in Texas grew from this tradition, a tradition Republican women accepted. The conservative social and political climate in Texas, as well as throughout the South, was not, however, very accommodating to women. First, men did not think that women needed to venture into any other circles that might threaten the balance of power at home; and second, the “fairer sex” was not welcomed into most political arenas, which were controlled by the “sterner sex.”2 2For an overview of conservative and Republican politics in Texas, see Paul Casdorph, A History of the Republican Party in Texas 1865-1965 (Austin: The 5 The Texas GOP capitalized on splits in the state Democratic party in an effort to further its advances. Both disenchantment with controversial Texas Democratic Governors James and Miriam Ferguson in the 1910s and 1920s, and a growing dissatisfaction with the liberal policies advanced through the New Deal during the 1930s, created opportunities for state Republicans to woo dissenting Democrats over to their side. With a change of direction and leadership within the state party organization after 1950, the Republicans waged serious campaigns for elected offices for the first time. Republican men were able to exercise their political yearnings through positions of leadership. Women, on the other hand, were shut out of the leadership ranks, and, as a consequence, they chose a traditional female strategy. They organized clubs in order to support the new leadership and rising candidates. Against formidable odds, Republican women were willing to act as foot soldiers and work very hard to attain their objectives. There were only a few areas in the state where the men made real progress, but where the men led, Republican women followed. Although the obstacles facing them appeared quite daunting, Republican women were able to look at club movements of the past and gain the confidence they needed to work toward their goals and ideals. As early as the mid-1800s, women came together to discuss various issues and topics ranging from equal suffrage, temperence, and abolition to an appreciation of literature and the arts. These women stepped out against societal norms, and in most cases the men viewed their gatherings with suspicion. Thus, from the Pemberton Press, 1965), and Roger M. Olien, From Token to Triumph: The Texas Republicans Since 1920 (Dallas: SMU Press, 1982). 6 very beginning women had to determine how they could meet and share ideas while at the same time pose no threat to the established, male-dominated society. For more than a decade before organizing formally as a statewide federation, women in Texas worked together to build the party from the grassroots level. The cities of Dallas, Fort Worth, Tyler, Houston, and San Antonio were the most active areas for the Republican women and GOP candidates. As some Texans grew uneasy with what they viewed as increasing liberal tendencies throughout the Democratic party, the Texas Republican party and Republican women’s clubs both experienced steady growth during the 1930s and 1940s. There were very few women who waged campaigns during this building period. The majority of women were committed to working behind the scenes. Generally, they organized around political campaigns. In the early 1950s, several important races, specifically Dwight D. Eisenhower’s 1952 presidential run and Bruce Alger’s 1954 congressional contest, demonstrated the potential future impact of their involvement. The women were invaluable to these races. They showed their ability to do the “shoe leather politicking” that was necessary for victory. They also built such a strong coalition between these two election years and in 1955 obtained the numbers needed to form the TFRW. Events in the 1960s offered these women new opportunities, but provided challenges as well. After women united through the TFRW, GOP candidates relied heavily on this volunteer corps. As a result, women campaigned more actively than ever before. In his bid for a U. S. Senate seat in 1961, John Tower implemented the “Womenpower for Tower” strategy, an idea that Representative Alger had used 7 successfully five years prior.