Tired of Texans running for president? 2024 could be a reprieve

Austin, Texas (AP) “It’s still early, but next year’s presidential race could do something that the political world hasn’t seen in 50 years: no Texans.

The hole the size of Texas in sight will be on display Friday at a private Republican donor event outside the state capital of Austin, which will include former Vice President Mike Pence, who is expected to campaign, and the former governor of South Carolina. Nikki Haley, who announced her bid last week.

Some Texans were still able to run. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott won’t make a decision until after Memorial Day. Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who ran in 2016, says he is now focused on re-election next year. Will Hurd, a former CIA agent and former Republican congressman from San Antonio, is seriously considering the offer and may be hiring, aides said.

If neither of them runs for the White House, it will be the first time since 1972 that there is no at least one major candidate who rose to prominence in Texas or lived in the state while running or holding office.

To find the next most recent presidential cycle without the Texans, one has to go back to 1952, four years before Lyndon B. Johnson made his first attempt at the White House.

“Obviously there’s some kind of constitutional amendment that voters backed at the time that says, ‘If you’re the governor of Texas, you should consider running for president,’ joked Dave Carney, chief strategist at Abbott and chief strategist at Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential bid. “And many of them have. For better or for worse.”

Some of the Texans’ runs at the White House have indeed been forgotten.

This includes the 1976 run of Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen and the bids of Republican Representative Ron Paul in 2008 and Republican Senator Phil Gramm in 1996. John Connally was the Democratic governor of Texas from 1963 to 1969, but aspired to the White House as a Republican in 1980. Dallas businessman Ross Perot never held elected office, but ran in major presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996.

Indeed, if this cycle continues without a Texas representative, it will not be a sign of the state’s waning political influence. Texas’ fast-growing population has increased by nearly 4 million residents since 2010, getting younger and more diverse. Its strong economy has attracted tech companies and corporate devotees who have flocked from across the country.

Texas has also become a stronghold of conservative priorities, passing one of the country’s most stringent anti-abortion laws even before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, and drastically loosening gun restrictions by calling for federal crackdowns along the US-Mexico border.

“I think every year that a Texan doesn’t run for president disappoints me,” said George Say, a major GOP donor from Dallas who was Perry’s financial chairman in 2012 and supported Marco Rubio in 2016.

“With all due respect to Florida, which is an incredibly attractive, right-wing state politically,” Sey added, “Texas is the sun, moon, and stars.”

A possible presidential run without the Texan would be a departure from recent cycles that included more than one. In the 2012 Republican Party presidential primaries, Paul confronted Perry, and in the 2016 primaries, Perry and Cruz. Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke and former San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro ran in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

Although only three presidents have called Texas home, the state has left its mark on Washington.

Long after he left office, a Braniff Airlines flight dubbed the “LBJ Special” continued to fly from Washington Dulles to Austin every day, an unusual non-stop flight for the time. President George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas was the “White House of the West,” but only because Johnson’s ranch in Stonewall, where he spent nearly a quarter of his presidency, already claimed the moniker “Texas White House.”

Bush even brought his favorite Dallas suburban caterer Eddie Dean to Washington to serve smoked ribs and stuffed jalapenos at his inaugural balls. His father, President George W. Bush, was a congressman from Houston and incorporated the harsh state spirit into his political branding, trying to spice up his northeastern upbringing with a touch of homeliness.

“Things are bigger in Texas, including the egos of our already oversized politicians,” said Mark Updegrove, CEO of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation, who noted that playing off their Texas swagger has paid off over the decades for bipartisan presidential candidates.

Since the modern era of presidential campaigns began in 1972, Texans have been in more cycles than any other state. According to Eric Ostermeier, researcher at the School of Public Relations. Hubert H. Humphrey University of Minnesota, the number of candidates from California increased. But in second place are Texans and New Yorkers, who put forward a total of 15 candidates each.

Ostermeier says he considers the home state to be the state where the candidate achieved public prominence or lived when he ran for office. This means that Houston native Marianne Williamson, who lives in Beverly Hills and is preparing the Democratic nomination for president in 2024, can be considered a Californian.

More clarity on possible Texans in the 2024 primary campaign will come after the state legislature adjourns at the end of May. Carney said that Abbott would then “look at the state of the race and see if he has anything that would make the race different and appeal to voters.”

“The Governor will not be a spoiler,” Carney said. “But if he thinks he has something to offer, he can run. If he thinks there are enough people with the same ideas as his, then probably not.

Hurd, who retired from Congress in 2021 after three terms representing Texas’s most competitive district, recently traveled to New Hampshire and is planning trips to other first primary states.

Cruz says he’ll focus on his Senate race next year, but doesn’t rule out another presidential run. He could do both. The so-called Texas LBJ Act allows running for Senate and President at the same time, and Bentsen was re-elected to his seat, losing the vice presidency in 1988.

A Cruz aide called the prospect of no Texans in the presidential race since 1972 “a smart little thing.”

Weissert reported from Washington.