Former Dallas Morning News political journalist Wayne Slater remembers the moment well. He was sitting at a sports bar near downtown Austin one day in the late 1980s, listening to a quixotic political consultant pitch his plan to turn Texas—a one-party state dominated by Democrats for nearly a century—red.
Only two Texas Republicans had ever won statewide elections in the 20th century. But the ambitious politico, a man in his late 30s named Karl Rove, was shoving papers in front of Slater that showed how demographic changes in Texas suburbs would open the door for a wholesale political realignment. “He basically predicted exactly what was going to happen,” recalled Slater, who went on to co-write three books about Rove.
The young operative made quick work of his mission. By the end of the century, Republicans controlled every statewide office and Governor George W. Bush was on his way to the White House.
