Little did we know ...: that the outcome of the election for governor ten years ago between Ann Richards and George W. Bush would affect more than Texas. An oral history of the race that changed the world.

Publication: Texas Monthly

Publication Date: 01-NOV-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Texas Monthly, Inc.

The 1994 Texas governor's race lived up to its billing as one of the most important in the state's history. The matchup between the nationally popular incumbent, Ann Richards, and the son of a former president, George W. Bush, produced total Republican dominance of the state for a decade and beyond: No Democrat has won a statewide election since that year. But its impact was not limited to Texas. Bush's victory put him on course to a presidency that has reshaped the nation's foreign policy and altered America's role in the world.

Ten years ago the race drew nationwide attention because it was great political theater. Richards was he saucy, white-haired wit who had famously dissed George the elder in her 1988 Democratic National Convention keynote address with the line "Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth." W. was the dutiful son with a famous name and an engaging grin but not much of a record in business or politics. Richards had won the governorship four years earlier by appealing to Republican voters who were turned off by the bumbling rhetoric of GOP nominee Clayton Williams. But by 1992 Republican consultant Karl Rove had seen demographic and political trends that favored Republicans, and he persuaded Bush that the race was winnable despite Richards's personal popularity.

On Election Day, Richards received almost 100,000 more votes than she had polled in 1990, but Bush piled up half a million more votes--most of them from suburbia--than Clayton Williams had tallied, winning the race with more than 53 percent. To mark the anniversary of this historically significant campaign, I asked the main players to share their recollections of the last Battle of the Titans in Texas polities.

The Numbers

Reggie Bashur, Bush press consultant: The state of Texas liked Ann Richards, liked her a lot, liked her on the day they voted her out of office. She had an approval rating of over 50 percent. And conventional wisdom is, if an incumbent is well liked, has high "favorability"--it's near impossible to defeat that individual. But the first poll I saw, the Texas Poll in November 1993, had Ann Richards at 47 percent and George W. Bush at 40, so he obviously was in a very competitive position, which had to do with his name and the trend of Texas becoming a Republican state.

Chuck McDonald, Richards campaign press secretary: The state undeniably had shifted to the Republican majority that is still in place today. In a lot of ways Ann had sown the seeds for her own defeat. She had aggressively [worked on] bringing all those jobs to Texas--Southwestern Bell in San Antonio, big telecom companies in North Texas, all the growth in Round Rock. The growth in suburban areas around Houston and Dallas and Fort Worth between 1990...

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