The Balance of Power in Texas Politics Runs Along I-35

[RandySF]

To get a better sense of where things are likely headed, let’s take a look at something reported by the Houston Chronicle last week: that more of these new Texans have registered to vote along the Interstate 35 corridor than in the rest of the state combined. Of the ten counties that added the most voters, at least seven of them run firmly along I-35. (If you count Rockwall County, about thirty miles east of the interstate in Dallas, and Parker County, the same distance in the other direction from Fort Worth, you’ll get to nine out of ten.) And as the I-35 corridor grows in political influence, the Chronicle notes, voter registration numbers in East Texas and the Panhandle have dropped. Even the fast-growing suburbs of Houston haven’t seen booms in voter registrations by 20 percent or more, the way the counties surrounding San Antonio, Austin, and Dallas have.

Texas Democrats are excited about the political balance of power shifting to the I-35 corridor. They envision a “blue spine” that would help them, eventually, carry statewide races. In late January, the Texas Democratic Party announced a list of 22 House seats in the Legislature that it intends to target, and 12 of them hug the interstate. Given that the majority of seats in San Antonio and Austin are already blue—and the Dallas–Fort Worth area is split roughly 50/50—the Democratic party’s path to taking over the House definitely travels along I-35. There are more than twice as many seats in the DFW area as there are along the entire border, from El Paso to South Padre Island, and the stretch from San Antonio to Austin represents almost as many as the greater Houston area. And crucially, those suburban voters are generally less conservative than the state as a whole.

Nowhere in Texas has grown faster than the stretch of the state that runs along I-35 from San Antonio to the suburbs north of Austin. The cities and towns to the north of San Antonio have enjoyed their own identities—New Braunfels and San Marcos barely qualify as suburbs of San Antonio and Austin, respectively—but as the cities around them have grown, the entire stretch has ballooned into what’s effectively becoming a single metro area.



https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/balance-power-texas-politics-interstate-35/?utm