Breckenridge Texan

All the ways the GOP has abandoned its rural base

Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News, where Glenn Rogers is a contributing columnist.

By Glenn Rogers

I grew up west of the 98th meridian in the small town of Graham. Boasting the largest courthouse square in Texas (and the United States), Graham is an idyllic community with a downtown ambiance like a Norman Rockwell painting.

In high school, my pickup truck sported a gun rack and a “goat ropers need love too” bumper sticker.

In my days in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, I used to entertain my buddies by reading the police report from the Graham Leader, complete with small town issues reminiscent of an episode of the Andy Griffith Show. This was particularly amusing for cadets from Houston.

In line with most rural Texas citizens, I have been a lifetime Republican voter. The last time my vote was cast for a Democrat in a Texas legislative or statewide office was for Rick Perry in his 1984, 1986, and 1988 races for the Texas House. But this election cycle I’m considering support for at least one Democrat for office in part because of the ways the party in control of Texas politics has become completely dominated by megadonors while leaving rural Texans behind. We need a return to representative government in Texas. Republican party leadership is headed in the opposite direction.

My own brief foray into Texas politics began in 2019 when I became alarmed at the underrepresentation of rural Texas in state government. What started as active participation in addressing the rural veterinarian shortage while serving as president of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, a North American cow doctors organization, quickly expanded to a clearer realization that much of rural America was losing population and experiencing a major “brain drain” extending well beyond veterinary medicine.

Now, as then, there is an increasing dearth of professionals to provide the critical services required to maintain and grow sustainable rural populations. While recruiting veterinarians, human medical personnel, teachers and others to live and work in rural communities is becoming more difficult, long-term retention is now even more problematic.

Despite Texas adding more people than any other state over the last decade, 140 of the 254 counties in Texas decreased in population during the same period.

The Texas Workforce Commission and various state statutes often define rural municipalities as those with fewer than 25,000 residents, and rural counties as those with fewer than 200,000 residents. My notion of rural is much smaller, as my home county, Palo Pinto, contains around 30,000 total residents.

Importance of Rural Texas to City Folks

About 4 million people live in rural Texas, which is larger than the population of more than 22 states. Rural Texas is vital to urban areas because it supplies the essential food, energy and water that keep major cities like Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and Austin operating. Back when bumper stickers were more prominent, “Never criticize a farmer with your mouth full” could be commonly seen when driving through “flyover country.”

Rural Texas contains more than 125 million acres dedicated to farming and ranching activities, and we lead the nation in the production of cattle, sheep, goats and cotton. Our plentiful food supply, provided by our rural agriculturalists, is the envy of the world.

Forty-three percent of our nation’s crude oil and 28% of natural gas production is located in rural Texas. We also lead the nation in the production of wind energy with most of it benefiting urban and suburban communities.

Agriculture, food and energy industries combined contribute around  $1.6 trillion in economic output to the state economy.

Keeping rural populations growing and thriving requires greater per capita economic inputs than required in larger cities. For instance, small rural school districts often struggle to stay open. Closing or consolidating them often makes sense from a purely economic perspective. But such closures can decimate a local community, even resulting in a ghost town.

Workers in agriculture, the oil and gas industry and other rural-focused enterprises depend on living within reasonable driving distances to their work and their children’s schools. Quality educational opportunities and healthcare access are essential. Retention also requires local amenities. Though sometimes uniquely different from recreational options in the cities, every rural town has something to offer.

Rural Voters: the Key to Republican Dominance

Donald Trump would not be president and Republicans would not have dominated Texas politics for the last 30 years without overwhelming support from rural citizens. Ninety-three percent of rural counties voted for Donald Trump in the last election.

Culture war issues and gun rights resonate with most Texas rural citizens and focusing on these issues has been an effective strategy to gain and maintain control of the rural vote.

Republican political strategy has manipulated this reality while often failing to deliver on the urgent daily needs of rural Texans, including cost of living issues, underfunded schools, shortages of access to quality healthcare, critical infrastructure needs and rising economic pressures on farmers and ranchers.

How much longer can the Republican Party count on a high percentage of rural voters while consistently supporting platforms that are inherently anti-rural?

Healthcare

According to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, Texas’ rural hospitals provide health care access for 13% of the population yet cover 85% of the state’s geography. Texas leads the nation in rural hospital closures, with 26 shutting down over the last two decades. Only 40% of the 147 Texas rural hospitals provide obstetrical care. The most isolated areas of Texas are more than 75 miles from the nearest hospital, and 74 counties do not have a hospital at all. Forty counties do not have a single primary care physician.

Regarding health insurance, Texas has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the country, with 16.7% of its total population lacking coverage. Despite high uninsured rates, Texas Republican leadership, strongly influenced by megadonor Tim Dunn and the Texas Public Policy Foundation, oppose Medicaid expansion. The most severely harmed by this stance are rural healthcare systems.

While not personally excited about promoting a government-dependent health program, I am even less excited about rural hospital closures and lack of healthcare services for Rural Texans.

Education

Rural communities are the ones most adversely affected by anti-public education policies such as the approval of a $1 billion voucher entitlement program approved in the last legislative session. This is expected to swell to $4.4 billion in the next biennium, taking even more money away from rural public schools.

Fifty-four percent of Texas counties do not have a brick and mortar private school accepting vouchers; even though taxpayers in these counties pay for private school vouchers used across the state.

The long-held assumption in rural communities has been that R stands for both Republican and rural, while D is for city folks. My capital R is for rural first and Republican second. In many clearly demonstrated ways the current Republican Party has become increasingly anti-rural. Before rural communities decide it is in their best interest to alter their political affiliation, hopefully, changes will occur to refocus on the needs of country folks, the historic and vital Republican base.

Support for rural Texas is support for all Texans.

Glenn Rogers is a rancher and veterinarian in Palo Pinto County. He served in the Texas House of Representatives from 2021 to 2025, representing Stephens County. He is a Dallas Morning News contributing columnist.