A new GOP color?
Mixed philosophies make up Southeast Texas Republicans
The national debate over what it means to be a Republican is playing out in Jefferson County, a place where voters walk a tightrope between the red and the blue.
Officials at the local and federal levels say the party is more ideologically diverse than ever — with socially conservative, libertarian-style and traditionally pro-business Republicans all in ascendance — but a Texas politics expert says discord within these ranks illustrates "a cost to the diversity."
"There have always been strains of each of these philosophies in the Republican Party, but they haven't ever had them all competing for attention in such a way as we do now," said Brandon Rottinghaus, a University of Houston political science professor. "The strengths of each wing are really at their height."
The election of President Donald Trump has highlighted, some might say exposed, the fractures between the groups.
In Jefferson County, the spectrum of GOP leadership is reflected by county Judge Jeff Branick, a recent Democrat-turned-Republican; Mitch Templeton, a libertarian-leaning candidate for district judge; and U.S. Rep. Randy Weber, R-Friends-wood, who leads with his social conservative principles.
State Rep. Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, said he maintains "a foot in each camp" because "that's kind of what Southeast Texas is like."
Rottinghaus agreed that "purple" Jefferson County is a bellwether for the state.
"Understanding where Southeast Texas is tells us a lot about where the country will go and gives hints about where Texas will go," he said.
"It's a very mixed bag down here with politics," added Phelan. "You have your Chamber of Commerce Republicans, Tea Party, libertarian, 'America First' Donald Trump — a new group of voters in the Republican primary — and many of them are traditionally Democratic voters or Independents."
While Southeast Texas is "clearly" not a region Democrats can count on, Rottinghaus said it also is not an area Republicans "can afford to take for granted."
National, local trends at play
Branick, elected as a Democrat in 2010 and re-elected in 2014, is running for his final term as a Republican. He made the party switch a year and a half ago.
"As both sides of the aisle have had people move to the fringes, it's kind of left people like me behind that believe in fiscal responsibility," said Branick, who cited national reasons for the change.
He said his beliefs in limited government and the Second Amendment "more closely aligned with Republicans as they currently exist."
As the leader of a traditionally Democratic-controlled county, Branick said making the switch was worth any potential danger to his re-election bid.
"I've got to be who I am," he said.
Despite the "diversity of opinion" in his new party, Branick said he wishes it were more racially diverse as well.
Democrats like Branick began crossing party lines in the 1970s and '80s, Rottinghaus said. The former Democrats were typically small government conservatives who began to see it "more advantageous" to be a Republican, he added, counting them in the party's libertarian-leaning strain.
"They were Democrats because they were called Democrats, not Democrats in the way we look at Democrats today," Rottinghaus said.
At its rebirth in the 1960s, the core of the Republican Party in Texas was "about economic conservatism with a flex of libertarianism," Rottinghaus said.
The1980s brought in the growth of religious conservatives who "began to demand their own policy agenda," he said. He called the 2017 proposal to ban transgendered people from using the bathroom of their choice the "modern incarnation" of the party's religious influence.
A "Christian, conservative Republican in that order," Weber said he defines himself as a social conservative, a faction within the party that he said cares more about the "social mores, or what we'd call the foundation or fabric of our country."
Branick said he is a libertarian on "some issues," mostly stemming from his own Christian faith.
The Bible "says that I'm supposed to be patient, long-suffering and kind in all circumstances and I'm not always that way," Branick said. "Because I can't adhere to it perfectly, I'm not going to dislike other people who don't adhere to it perfectly."
Templeton, the Republican judicial candidate for 172nd District Court, said he sees a "real libertarian streak" within the GOP, at least at the local level.
These types of Republicans are a "liberty-minded group of people" who want the "government to leave people alone," Templeton said, referring to leaders like U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who are known for their libertarian views.
Rottinghaus said issues like the bathroom bill caused a clash among Republicans, specifically social conservatives and fiscal conservatives who worry that stances seen as intolerant would negatively affect business.
"To me, that's the kind of trade-off the party has to deal with," Rottinghaus said.
Trump effect a question mark
Trump "emboldened many of the wings of the party in a way that no other candidate could," Rottinghaus said.
"A lot of Republicans don't view him as being terribly conservative, yet many point to him as an example of how Republicans should act," he said. "On one hand, he promotes his economic philosophy, which economic Republicans like, and a fairly conservative social vision, which conservative social Republicans like."
Phelan said Trump's message resonated with the Golden Triangle's working class. He said Orange County, which went 80 percent for Trump in 2016, would likely not have done so "a decade ago."
Trump was only the second Republican presidential candidate to win Jefferson County, Phelan said.
"Even Reagan didn't do it," he said.
Trump "connected to Southeast Texas without question," Phelan said.
Yet Weber said a small group of "never Trumpers" remains. These voters didn't like Trump "on the front end" for his tweeting or "vulgar language," Weber said, but they "abhorred the possibility of Hillary Clinton."
Lamar University political science professor James Nelson said he believed it was "a little early at this point" to say how much Trump's election changed the Republican Party. But he does see "limited evidence" of the beginning of a new demographic divide shifting coalitions within the GOP.
Despite Republicans winning in "blue wall" states near the Great Lakes in 2016, most of the country "remained similar," Nelson said. For example, Texas stayed red and California stayed blue, he said.
"Southeast Texas, politically, it's been a diverse area in recent decades, particularly Jefferson County," Nelson said. Both Trump and former President Barack Obama won the county by small margins.
Nelson said it might take a few more presidential elections to gauge the full effect of the Trump presidency.