The trend of state government exerting power over local-largely liberal-cities and counties is playing out across Texas. Mr Abbott announced that public schools and other government entities can no longer require masks on their campuses from June 5th. Republicans enjoy bossing teachers around. But now, on top of trying to ensure that pupils catch up with the learning lost during the pandemic and the huge snowstorm in February, he will have to eliminate all black and Mexican-American studies courses at DISD’s 37 high schools and redesign professional training for all 22,000 employees, because of a bill (which will probably pass) banning modish talk about accommodating people of different ethnic or racial backgrounds. Michael Hinojosa, the superintendent, says his biggest priority was to see that funding promised in the last session was not cut, a worry eased by the federal stimulus. Consider Dallas Independent School District ( DISD), the state’s second-largest. “I have seen more American-flag-wear in the last 25 days than I have in the last 25 years,” he adds. “The only people who were at the Capitol in Austin were legislators and older white male lobbyists in pinstripe suits and cowboy boots,” says Mr Sabo. The state’s voting bill panders to the former president’s false claims of electoral fraud. Dan Patrick, the lieutenant-governor, twice chaired Mr Trump’s campaign in Texas. It is also a showcase for the lingering influence of Donald Trump and his acolytes. Texas may be a bellwether for national politics. He is believed to have presidential aspirations, and views the state’s fame for some of its more Trumpian laws as thoroughly good for his own national brand. “The only thing that matters is March, and the only way to lose a Republican primary is if someone makes you look too liberal.” Mr Abbott, too, is using this legislative session to fend off conservative primary challengers next year, when he is up for re-election. “Nobody cares about November any more,” says Jason Sabo of Frontera Strategy, a lobbying firm. Members of the legislature fear Democrats less than losing to a conservative rival in the primary. Republicans have seized on this, and are using this legislative session to establish their credentials ahead of next year’s mid-term elections, when all 31 members of the Senate are up for election. After boasting that they could well take control of the state House, Democrats failed to make inroads, both because campaigning was constrained by covid-19 and because national progressive rhetoric did not play well in Texas. Since then, the 2020 election has emboldened Republicans, who see self-preservation rather differently now. In response Republicans adopted a strategy of self-preservation, mostly avoiding polarising social issues and focusing instead on priorities for mainstream voters, such as increasing funding for public education and capping property taxes. That session had followed Democratic gains in 2018, when Beto O’Rourke ran for the US Senate. This rightward-step took many by surprise, because the last time legislators convened the bills they passed were more concerned with governing than signalling. “Just when you think Texas couldn’t go further to the right, here we are,” says Mark Jones of Rice University. Another bill being considered would require sports teams that do business with the state to play the national anthem at every game. One preventing transgender students from joining school sports teams that match the gender with which they identify narrowly missed a deadline. The session also underlined where the front-line in the culture-wars is now: there was a bill banning the teaching of critical race theory (a particular approach to historical racial bias) in schools. The same is true of a new voting bill, which puts restrictions on polling places and their hours of operation, and was expected to be signed into law as The Economist went to press.
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