Copyright by Dolph Briscoe IV 2014 The Dissertation Committee for Dolph Briscoe IV Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: For a Long Time to Come: The Transformation of Texas Politics, 1960-1984 Committee: H. W. Brands, Supervisor Michael B. Stoff Emilio Zamora Don E. Carleton T. Michael Parrish David M. Oshinsky For a Long Time to Come: The Transformation of Texas Politics, 1960-1984 by Dolph Briscoe IV, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin December 2014 Dedication In memory of my beloved grandfather, Governor Dolph Briscoe, Jr., A devoted Texas Longhorn and lifelong Democrat Acknowledgements My time as a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin has been immensely fulfilling, both professionally and personally. In completing my studies and this dissertation, I received support from so many wonderful people. First, I want to express deep gratitude to my mentor, Professor H. W. Brands, who has provided me with guidance and encouragement throughout my time at UT. It has been my great honor to work with Dr. Brands as a student and teaching assistant. His dedication to teaching and writing, enthusiasm for students’ interests, and concern for engaging the broader public with history is inspiring. Dr. Brands is the role model for the historian I strive to be, and I am profoundly grateful for his support. I am much appreciative to Professors Don Carleton, David Oshinsky, Michael Parrish, Michael Stoff, and Emilio Zamora for serving on my dissertation committee. These outstanding historians gave me terrific feedback during the process of completing this project. Dr. Carleton has been a very special friend to my family, and I particularly am grateful to him for recording my grandfather’s memoirs in print and giving me support from a young age as I embarked on a career in history. I have long admired Dr. Oshinsky, one of the first professors I met at UT, and I am thankful for his continued interest throughout my career in Austin, even after he moved to New York. He is an exceptional historian and teacher. Dr. Parrish served as my mentor during my undergraduate and graduate years at Baylor University, and in a testament to his character v and devotion to the study of history, has remained a steadfast counselor to me ever since. From early on, he supported my goals and introduced me to the historical profession, and I am indebted to him for his belief in me. Dr. Stoff provided excellent commentary on my dissertation and ideas for future research, and I especially respect his work with undergraduate students in UT’s prestigious Plan II Honors Program. I have enjoyed visiting with Dr. Zamora about Texas history during my years at UT, and am grateful for his kindness. I very much admire Dr. Zamora’s service to the Texas State Historical Association and his efforts to ensure that our youth receive a better education in history. I enjoyed researching for my dissertation in excellent archival repositories. I completed most of my work at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Briscoe Center for American History, both located on UT’s campus and managed by amazing staffs. I thank Mark Updegrove, Barbara Cline, Allen Fisher, and Brian McNerney for helping me navigate through the LBJ Library’s incredible collections. I also am appreciative to Mr. Updegrove for having me as a research assistant for his great book on LBJ’s presidency. I thank Dr. Carleton, Brenda Gunn, and Margaret Schlankey for their guidance through the rich archives of the Briscoe Center. I further appreciate the staffs of the John G. Tower Library at Southwestern University and the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University for making my visits to these impressive institutions so productive. My utmost thanks to all those associated with these fine archival libraries where I conducted research. I am immensely grateful to the faculty and to my fellow graduate students in the Department of History at UT, who have been superb influences in my growth as a vi historian. In addition to my dissertation committee, for their support I thank Professors Norman Brown, Erika Bsumek, Matthew Butler, Sandra Kuntz Ficker, Alison Frazier, Seth Garfield, Virginia Garrard-Burnett, Laurie Green, Bruce Hunt, Jacqueline Jones, Neil Kamil, Charles Krecz, Alberto Martínez, Anne Martínez, Joan Neuberger, Robert Olwell, Perrin Selcer, James Sidbury, and Alan Tully. I also want to thank Marilyn Lehman, our dedicated Graduate Program Coordinator, for all the help she has given to me as I pursued my degree. Furthermore, it has been a true privilege to work as a teaching assistant during my time at UT, and I want to acknowledge the many wonderful undergraduate students who I have had the honor of serving. Additionally, I express my deep appreciation to the Baylor University Department of History. The faculty and fellow students from my earlier years in Waco provided the foundation for my studies in history and taught me how to be a professional historian. I am thankful to have so many caring friends who showed enthusiasm for my studies. For making my graduate days and nights in Austin so fun and memorable, I particularly thank Patrick Cowhig, Ken De Silva, Robert Dullnig, Tyler Gillespie, Jason Howell, Chris Moore, Shawn Pulkkinen, Mike Rains, and Phil Young. I am incredibly blessed to have such a loving and supportive family. It was my great fortune to get to know all four of my grandparents, and I am forever grateful to them for their sacrifice and love for their grandchildren. I especially want to note my appreciation for my paternal grandfather, Governor Dolph Briscoe, Jr., who showed great enthusiasm for my study of history. As readers of this dissertation will notice, he played a role in these studied events. I tried my best to give as accurate a portrayal as possible of vii his part in this story. He might have disagreed with some of my conclusions, but I know he would have expressed such sentiments only with his characteristic encouragement and loving nature. I wish that he and all of my grandparents were here to read this dissertation. My parents, Chip and Jill Briscoe, and my brother, James Leigh Briscoe, have given me unconditional love throughout my life, and I am eternally in their debt. There are not enough words to express my appreciation to them for all they have done for me. Lastly, I thank my fiancée, Margaret Grace Allee, and her family, for their support. Margaret defines what true love is by the way she lives, and has been amazing in her encouragement of me throughout my time in graduate school. It is my great blessing to get to spend my life with her. My utmost gratitude to you all. viii For a Long Time to Come: The Transformation of Texas Politics, 1960-1984 Dolph Briscoe IV, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2014 Supervisor: H. W. Brands After signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson predicted that as his Democratic Party fully embraced racial equality, whites would flock to Republicans across the South, including in his beloved native Texas. LBJ’s expectation proved accurate. From the 1960s to the 1980s, the power of the Texas Democratic Party declined as the national party took stances on issues such as civil rights, the role of government, culture, and foreign policy that alienated many Texans and contributed to the growth of the Texas Republican Party. The national Democratic Party’s leftward shift became too much to bear for most conservative Texans, who found the Republican Party, especially when led by the charming Ronald Reagan, more appealing. Constant division within the state Democratic Party further weakened its electoral success and led many conservatives to convert to the GOP. Texas itself changed dramatically during these years, as job opportunities and warm weather attracted Americans from all parts of the country to Texas. By the 1980s, the formerly rural, Democratic-dominated Texas had become an urbanized, two-party super-state, on its way to becoming a bastion of Republican political power. ix Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Introduction......................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 “Upward to the Great Society”: LBJ, Texas, and the White House, 1960-1965 .........................................................................................33 CHAPTER 3 “There’s a Great Revulsion Taking Place”: LBJ, Texas, and the White House, 1966........................................................................................75 CHAPTER 4 “A Great Tide Running”: LBJ, Texas, and the White House, 1967-1969 ...................................................................................................110 CHAPTER 5 “The New Majority We Had Only Dreamed of”: Nixon, the Southern Strategy, and Texas, 1969-1972 ..................................................153 CHAPTER 6 “The Majority is Still Right of Center”: Texas Politics in the Watergate Era, 1972-1976 ..........................................................................198 CHAPTER 7 “We’ve Finally Come of Age in State Politics”: Booming Texas, Democratic Struggles, and Republican Triumph, 1977-1984 .........243 CHAPTER 8 Epilogue and Conclusions ...........................................................285 Bibliography ........................................................................................................298