What has happened to party identification in Texas in recent ...

[BRWH]

What has happened to party identification in Texas in recent decades? What sociodemographic characteristics typify Republican and Democratic identifiers? Do all Texans identify with a major political party, and does it matter?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Temporary organizations of political parties in Texas are the series of conventions they hold. What conventions are part of this? What do convention participants do? Who can and who does participate in conventions, and why does it matter?
 
  What will be an ideal response?

[diana chang]

Answer to Question 1

Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Trace the rise in Republican identification from only 6 percent in 1952 to a plurality by the late 1990s and a further increase in 2014.
2. Identify gender, racial, ethnic, age, income, religious, urban/rural, and education characteristics associated with patterns of support for the two parties.
3. Explain that many Texans identify themselves as independents.
4. Present and defend an argument regarding independent identification.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: An ideal response will:
1. Explain the progression from precinct conventions to county and state senatorial district conventions.
2. Explain the operation of state conventions.
3. Identify the purpose of conventions as politics, candidate selections, and control of party apparatus.
4. Explain that anyone voting in a given party's primary is eligible to participate in that party's conventions.
5. Explain that participation rates in conventions are very low and that this offers an opportunity for organized, committed, ideological factions/groups to control them, thereby promoting more extreme candidates and a more extreme party platform.