The Texas population has become increasingly diverse over the past decade as the result of new immigration, primarily from Latin America and Asia, and natural growth of the existing minority populations.

Intense political attention has been focused on Texas Latinos, whose share of the population (and the potential electorate) is growing and is expected to keep growing in the near future. This chapter's feature on Demographics of Race and Ethnicity in Texas illustrates the increase in Latino numbers in the state between the last two national censuses, 1990 and 2000. According to these census data, Hispanics and Latinos constitute almost one-third of the Texas population, and those of Mexican descent constitute almost one-quarter.

Though Mexican Americans and (to a lesser extent) Latinos have voted strongly in favor of Democratic candidates, leaders of both parties speak frequently of the importance of Latino voters to the future of politics in the state. Democrats prioritize increasing voter turnout among Latino voters and cementing their traditional allegiance to Democratic candidates. Republicans have emphasized attempting to recruit Latino candidates and finding ways to woo at least some Latino voters away from the Democrats. Even amidst the Republican resurgence of past two decades, former Governor Bill Clements made a public appeal to fellow Republicans for greater attention to Latino voters in an editorial in 1998 in the Corpus Christi Caller-Times:

Hispanics must have an important role in the future of the Republican Party of Texas. If they don't, in a few years when people talk of minorities, they won't be talking about Hispanics. They'll be referring to Texas Republicans. [8]

The problem for Republicans is that Latinos have tended to identify with the Democratic Party. Any attraction that Latinos might have for the Republicans will be tempered by the influence of the conservative wing of the party, whose policy positions have historically held little appeal for Latino voters. Ideological conflicts between Republican moderates and conservatives have been reinforced by differences in outreach strategies. As the reality of demographic changes set in during the late 1990s, part of what defined many Republicans as moderates was an emphasis in both rhetoric and policy toward increasing the party's appeal to Latinos and other ethnic and racial minorities. Conservatives in the party, however, have been focused on other issues that either do not speak directly to the concerns of Latinos and minorities, or are sometimes hostile to the concerns of these ethnic groups.

For their part, Democrats cannot assume that the Latino population will continue to provide a reliable base of support. Critics, both among Latino activists and elsewhere, frequently argue that the Democratic Party often neglects Latino constituencies, sometimes taking Latino support for granted. They predict that this neglect will hurt at the polls, as some Latinos experiment with supporting Republican candidates or otherwise choose to disengage - declining to join the party organization or simply not voting. Such criticisms form part of a larger critique attributing the Democratic decline over the past two decades to the party's overconfidence and failure to maintain organizational strength in the state.

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⁸ Bill Clements, "Attracting Hispanics is Crucial to the Texas GOP's Future," Corpus Christi Caller-Times, January 8, 1998; reprinted in Lyle C. Brown, et al. Practicing Texas Politics (2001).