bill clements was the first republican governor of texas following reconstruction.
who was the first republican governor of texas following reconstruction?
bill clements
three governors have served non-consecutive terms: elisha m. pease, miriam a. ferguson, and bill clements. as was the case in most southern states, texas did not elect any republican governor from the end of reconstruction until the late twentieth century. bill clements was the state's first republican governor since edmund j. davis left office in 1874, 105 years earlier. dolph briscoe was the last governor to be elected to a two-year term, in 1972; he was also the first to be elected to a four-year term, in 1974, since the post-reconstruction period when two-year terms had first been established. rick perry, who ascended to the governorship on december 21, 2000 upon the resignation of then-governor george w. bush, won full four-year terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010.
list of governors of texas
other political figures, such as ed koch, jim leach, zell miller, colin powell, did not formally leave their parties, but supported a candidate from another party. miller and koch, though democrats, supported republican george w. bush's 2004 reelection campaign, while powell and leach supported barack obama's 2008 presidential campaign. this received much media attention in 2004, when democrats for bush and republicans for kerry groups were formed. in new hampshire, former republican governor walter peterson has expressly supported democrat john lynch in his bids for governor. in virginia, the state's first republican governor since reconstruction, linwood holton, has since 2001 frequently supported democrats in statewide races – his son-in-law, tim kaine, has been elected to the governorship and the u.s. senate in that time, and served as chairman of the democratic national committee and the democratic party's nominee for vice president in the 2016 election – and endorsed barack obama in 2008. similarly, in 1860, former democratic president martin van buren ended up supporting abraham lincoln due to van buren's disagreements with democratic policies on secession. other examples include former republican senator from minnesota david durenberger supporting john kerry in 2004 and former democratic attorney general griffin bell supporting george w. bush in 2004. moreover, former u.s. secretary of agriculture and democrat mike espy endorsed incumbent republican governor of mississippi haley barbour for reelection in 2007. on august 3, 2017, west virginia governor jim justice announced that he had rejoined the republican party after having been elected as a democrat less than a year prior. he made the announcement at a donald trump rally in huntington and also confirmed his support for the sitting president. justice claimed that he was returning to the gop because he could not help trump as a democrat. the announcement came as a surprise to his own staff. this also made justice the first republican governor of west virginia since cecil underwood in 2001. conversely, republican congressman justin amash of michigan left the gop to become an independent on july 4, 2019, due to his opposition to trump.
party switching in the united states