TLIAW: Shuffling the Deck for Texas Hold'em

Hi everybody!

Hey, I think I've seen you around here.

I'm glad to here that! Maybe you saw one of my two stories in the Challengerverse Series?

That sounds vaguely familiar. Is this the third one in that series?

While I do plan on continuing the Challengerverse Series, no. This is a separate project entirely. Just go back and read the title card again.

Wait, Shuffling the Deck?

Yes!

Aren't you a few months late, Statesman?

Maybe, but I wanted to add my own little twist onto it.

And what would that be, exactly?

Well, in the first renditions of Shuffling the Deck, the intention was to change the legacy of the officeholder or something like that, right?

Sure. What are you getting at?

But that office holder was always the leader of a country. For this, I instead decided to do a Shuffling of the Deck for a smaller office, and from that office, look outside at the affairs of the nation as a whole, offering only a mere glimpse of the ATL.

Huh? You lost me, kiddo.

*fights back anger at being called "kiddo"*

I'm Shuffling the Deck of Texas Governors as a window into an ATL United States.

Why didn't you just say that! Shall we begin?

I did, but I'm ready if you are.

Let's get going then!

Ante up, I've got the deck ready.

Knowing nothing about Texas politics I must say I am interested.

On August 4th of 1941, Coke R. Stevenson would become the 35th Governor of Texas, succeeding W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel when he resigned to take the Senate seat he had won in a special election. Where Governor O’Daniel had been unpredictable, vibrant, and flamboyant, the new Governor Stevenson would prove to be so conservative and aloof that many would accuse him of doing nothing.

While Governor, he would grow very close with Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn. However, it was this friendship that would eventually lead to his fall from the Governorship. While Rayburn among others were trying to find a replacement Vice President for 1944, disliking Henry Wallace, he consulted his newly close friend, Governor Stevenson. When Stevenson suggest that Sam Rayburn himself would make an excellent candidate, Rayburn told him, half-jokingly, that he would make a much better choice than himself.

Thinking he was then in consideration for the Vice Presidential Nomination, Governor Stevenson ended his former quiet and taciturn ways, trying to maneuver himself into a better position to get the nod from President Roosevelt. As the Texas economy recovered from the Great Depression, he announced that he would not seek another term as Governor in further hopes of catching the eye of FDR. However, he was never actually in consideration for the nomination (which would later go to Senator Harry Truman) – a wound for which he would never entirely forgive Speaker Rayburn for.

While he could have won another term as Governor nearly unopposed in 1944, potentially becoming the longest serving Governor in Texas history to that point, Coke R. Stevenson gambled on higher office and lost. Despite this, he was able to oversee a strong recovery of the Texas economy during WW2.

King of the Uzbeks said:

Knowing nothing about Texas politics I must say I am interested.

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I've tried to keep enough in about what's going on at the national level to make it interesting even if you don't, but glad to see you're interested anyways.

Very interesting. Maybe Rick Perry will be a Democrat this time around.

Practically unopposed even in an open election, Beauford H. Jester swept into office with reform in mind. The first thing he sought to tackle was small, as he was hoping he could build momentum for further reforms in the future. Reforming the state prison system, he made allies in the State Legislature which would help him pass future legislation as well as with newly elected Texas Attorney General John Connally.

Hoping to get further achievements under his belt before reelection in 1946, he was able to successfully pass very strong right-to-work laws as well as anti-lynching laws, both of which Attorney General Connally was adamant in supporting to the full capacities of his own office.

After reelection in 1946, he increased funding to state hospitals and orphanages and created the Board of Texas State Hospitals and Special Schools as well as the Texas Youth Development Council. His second term didn’t see nearly as many public accomplishments as his first, until 1948 when he was able to pass the most expansive education reform at the time, with the Gilmer-Aiken Act – the first comprehensive system of funding Texas schools.

After winning reelection in 1948, however, the rest of his Governorship would prove uneventful. He would die of a heart attack on July 11th of 1949 – leaving his Lieutenant Governor to succeed him – becoming the only Governor in Texas history to die while in office.

After four years as Attorney General, Governor Jester would convince the young John Connally to run for Lieutenant Governor in 1948, which he would win at the same time his friend and ally Lyndon Johnson was elected to the United States Senate. And after Governor Jester’s death, John Connally would be the only Governor in Texas history to attain the office as a result of the death of a Governor.

As Governor, Connally would continue Governor Jester’s expansion of the education system, expanding funding in 1949, 1952 and 1953 for the various public universities in the state as well as creating the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Governor Connally was also well known for fighting corruption within the Texas Governor, a continuation of his old practices from his time as Attorney General, seeing Land Office Commissioner Bascom Giles convicted of rampant fraud against Texas war veterans in 1953.

However, despite this, he was often criticized by Ralph Yarborough and the liberal faction of the Texas Democratic Party, who dubbed his faction the “Connalliers”. It was Governor Connally and the Connalliers who helped deliver Texas for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, favoring the General to Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson.

Not running for Governor again in 1954, his Lieutenant Governor would easily claim victory, paving the way for the Connalliers to continue to dominate Texas politics. 

A loyal Connallier, Lieutenant Governor Allan Shivers was the obvious successor to Governor Connally, despite facing a fierce challenge from Ralph Yarborough. This loyalty to Connally and the conservative faction of the party would be proved early on in his Governorship, when in 1955, when Senator Lyndon Johnson suffered a fatal heart attack only months after becoming Majority Leader. Governor Shivers would, much to the dismay of his rival Ralph Yarborough, pick former Governor John Connally to fill the seat.

In his first term, he would push to make membership in the Communist party a death penalty offense, though it would never come to fruition. Perhaps the most noteworthy event of his first term, however, would be his endorsement of President Eisenhower in 1956, further angering the liberal faction of the Democratic Party in Texas.

However, after 1956 (where he again faced a challenge from Ralph Yarborough), Governor Shivers began to moderate his positions, passing in his second term a strict ethics code for state employees and, in his third term, seeing legislation pass that would create a 2-cents sales tax. These moves, combined with a heavy dose of politicking led Ralph Yarborough to announce that he would run for Lieutenant Governor – a position which Governor Shivers had shifted many duties while Governor, making it more powerful than ever before.

However, when it was leaked that he was trying helping Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford take Texas for the Republicans a third consecutive time instead of supporting John Kennedy and Terry Sanford, he would again alienate the liberals within the Texas Democratic Party – and without forming any additional goodwill with the Connalliers he had previously scorned. Ultimately, Allan Shivers would isolate himself within the party to the point of losing his fourth bid for the Governorship in 1960.

It would be Senator Price Daniel that would ultimately unseat Allan Shivers to become Texas Governor. As his first move as Governor, Daniel would ensure Ralph Yarborough filled his seat in the Senate – a decision intended to allow Governor Daniel to retake some of the powers that had fallen to the Lieutenant Governor position under Governor Shivers (though he was unable to successfully reassume all the powers that had been passed on).

As Governor, Price Daniel would enact strong regulation of lobbyists early on, as well as create a long-range water conservation plan for the state. In the mold of former Governor’s Jester and Connally, Daniel would also see an increase in funding to public universities, as well as overseeing Texas A&M admit women for the first time.

However, Governor Daniel would also have to deal with President Nixon’s passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which proved unpopular in all of the South. Further, Daniel was set to appear with President Nixon at the University of Texas in Austin on February 1st of 1966, but was caught in traffic when Charles Joseph Whitman opened fire on the grounds and surrounding community in what would be known as the UT Tower Shooting, resulting in 14 deaths in addition to President Nixon’s.

With blame falling on his shoulders and his approval ratings dismal, Texans were craving a return to the era before Governor’s Daniel and Shiver. Instead, the people of the Lone Star State sought a hero with an untarnished reputation to lead them. 

A bit disappointed this has been as successful as I had hoped, but I suppose not all ideas can get far off the ground. For all of you still watching, first thank you and second I do intend on finishing this.

Statesman said:

A loyal Connallier, Lieutenant Governor Allan Shivers was the obvious successor to Governor Connally, despite facing a fierce challenge from Ralph Yarborough. This loyalty to Connally and the conservative faction of the party would be proved early on in his Governorship, when in 1955, when Senator Lyndon Johnson suffered a fatal heart attack only months after becoming Majority Leader. Governor Shivers would, much to the dismay of his rival Ralph Yarborough, pick former Governor John Connally to fill the seat.

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You had LBJ's 1955 heart attack kill him?! Not cool, Statesman, not cool at all.

Statesman said:

A bit disappointed this has been as successful as I had hoped, but I suppose not all ideas can get far off the ground. For all of you still watching, first thank you and second I do intend on finishing this.

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I'm certainly enjoying this. To be fair though, not a lot of people know that much about Texas Politics, so it might take a few days before this timeline attracts the attention it deserves.

I'm just sitting here patiently waiting for the thousand year Dolph Briscoe Reich. That man was just so Texas in every possible way.

Serving nearly twelve years in the Senate, the former Governor decided to run again for Governor, after Price Daniel opted out of running again. He would win virtually unopposed. His second stint as Governor of Texas would largely come to be divided into two periods.

The first period would be marked by marked goodwill and cooperation with President Ford. In it, he sought to help heal his state and country, which was still reeling from the death of President Nixon, but he also sought to keep order in the face of the race riots that had been plaguing the country. However, in all of this, he allowed many of the actual powers of Governor to fall onto Lieutenant Governor John Tower, despite his second in command being a Republican (the vast power that the Lieutenant Governor holds today is largely due to John Connally, despite the process being started by Governor Shivers).

This goodwill between President Ford and Governor Connally was such that in late 1967, the President offered Connally the position of Secretary of Treasury. However, sensing that this was largely to allow John Tower to ascend to the Governorship, Connally would turn down this offer.

The second period of his second stint as Governor would begin with the reelection of President Ford in 1968, and would be one of direct contrast to the goodwill seen before. Governor Connally became viciously critical of President Ford for failing to take decisive action on the riots within the country.

Governor Connally would especially become critical of President Ford for getting the United States entangled in the Syrian Civil War, especially after it came out that the attempted coup in Syria in early 1970 was largely a result of a joint Israeli-American effort within the country. As anti-draft and anti-war riots ramped up, Governor Connally was sure to show his high regard for what he would dub in his Presidential Campaign as “law, justice, and order” as well as for “peace, at home and abroad”.

After reelection in 1970, John Connally announced that he would not run for another term as Governor, leaving most observes to expect what came next from him. With power largely resting with the Lieutenant Governor anyways, John Connally began his campaign for President. After securing the nomination, Senator Birch Bayh was selected to be his running mate. He would go on to beat Vice President Nelson, becoming the first President to run from Texas as well as the first Democratic President in 20 years.

BonnieBlue85 said:

You had LBJ's 1955 heart attack kill him?! Not cool, Statesman, not cool at all.

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I've always thought that would make for an interesting POD, so, yes, I added it into the story here.

OnlyAlb said:

I'm certainly enjoying this. To be fair though, not a lot of people know that much about Texas Politics, so it might take a few days before this timeline attracts the attention it deserves.

Click to expand...

Well thank you for your kind words.

Octosteel said:

I'm just sitting here patiently waiting for the thousand year Dolph Briscoe Reich. That man was just so Texas in every possible way.

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I'll admit there are a lot of ways this could've been broken down, especially with the lack of term limits, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make John Connally a hero (and President).

Few had expected Dolph Briscoe would succeed Governor Connally. With his last successful election being 1964, where he was able to successfully win one term as Lieutenant General (after previously serving in the Texas House of Representatives), he had truly been an underdog upon entering the race. However, he was a close friend and ally of Senator Ralph Yarborough, and with the Connalliers struggling to find a candidate in the wake of John Connally’s absence, Dolph Briscoe was able to successfully beat John Tower for the Governorship.

While he would achieve the state’s first reform in penal code in one hundred years, in his short time as Governor, Dolph Briscoe’s largest influence would be in the appointments he made, helping further disassemble the Connallier’s hold on the state. It was these actions, however, that would lead to his Governorship ending as his Lieutenant Governorship did – after one term alone.

After leaving the Governorship, Dolph Briscoe would go on to work closely with Senator Yarborough and eventually as an advisor on Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Campaign.

So no change from two to four year terms for Governor yet then?

The odd thing about a two year term system is I wonder how you get anything done. I mean isn't it case of you get elected, have about a month to do the work and then have to get back on the road to run for re-election?

Without LBJ and the rift between progressive and conservative democrats yeah I see them possibly being kept out 20 years.

Don't get too down Statesman, Texas Govs is a little niche.

I'm gonna hold my tongue on predictions.

Formerly being Deputy Secretary of Defense and Chief of Staff in the Ford Administration, Bill Clements faced only minor resistance in seeking the Republican Nomination for Governor, with John Tower opting out of running again. From there, it would turn out to be smooth sailing to his victory. President Connally had failed to end American involvement in the Syrian Civil War, allowing the Republicans to make strong gains in 1974, and with the Connallier dominance dismantled by Governor Briscoe, the Democratic Party in Texas was even weaker. Bill Clements would become the first Republican Governor of Texas since Reconstruction.

In his one term as Governor, Clements would fight largely to reduce crime rates within the state and to boost the Texas economy. He increased funding to law enforcement within the state, while simultaneously cutting funding to education and (by the suggestion of Senator George H.W. Bush) loosening restrictions on the oil and natural gas industry.

However, with President Connally and Secretary of State Henry Jackson successfully negotiating an end to the Syrian Civil War in 1975, Bill Clements narrowly lost his bid for reelection, being succeeded by his Lieutenant Governor.