1944 United States presidential election in Texas

As a former Confederate state, Texas had a history of Jim Crow laws, disenfranchisement of its African-American and Mexican-American populations, and single-party Democratic rule outside local governments in a few Unionist German-American counties (chiefly Gillespie and Kendall) of Central Texas. Since 1930 no Republicans had served in either house of the Texas Legislature, and in his two 1930s landslides Franklin D. Roosevelt had won over 87% of Texas' ballots.

Texas' rulers were highly critical of Roosevelt's decision in 1940 to replace conservative Texan John Nance Garner with liberal Northerner Henry A. Wallace on the 1940 Democratic ticket.[2] However, this was insignificant compared to the shock they received when, in March of 1944, the landmark case of Smith v. Allwright ruled unconstitutional the white primaries upon which the politics of Texas and most other Southern states were based.[lower-alpha 1] The result was that Texas' oil and natural gas industries became powerfully opposed to the re-nomination of President Roosevelt,[3] and called for the reversal of New Deal policies alongside the "return of states' rights" and "restoration of white supremacy".[4]

At first these anti-New Deal Democrats attempted to take over the state Democratic organization, send anti-Roosevelt delegates to the national convention[5] and prevent the seating of Negro delegates to that convention.[6] When this failed and FDR loyalists maintained control of the state Democratic delegation,[2] the anti-New Deal groups formed the "Texas Regulars" led by Merritt Gibson, who would later join Strom Thurmond's Dixiecrat movement.[6]

Although their electors were not pledged to any candidate, the Regulars were able to gain access to the ballot[7] in September.[8] Support from Governor Pappy O'Daniel, however, failed to obscure that the Regulars' support was largely confined to affluent urban areas and a few traditional plantation districts, plus the fact that some of their support came from the state's small traditional Republican Presidential vote.[9] Consequently, Texas again voted overwhelming for incumbent President Roosevelt and his new running mate, Missouri Senator Harry S. Truman. Washington County nonetheless gave the Regulars 52 percent of its ballots and thus became the first county in the nation to go for a third party since Bob La Follette in 1924 won over 16% of the national vote and over a sixth of the nation's counties.[10]