Let's say the House Speaker Thomas "Tip" O'Neill and the Democratic Leadership anticipate this and don't punish Phil.http://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/06/us/gramm-quits-house-for-gop-race.html
BRYAN, Tex., Jan. 5 [1983]— Two days after his fellow Democrats stripped him of his seat on the House Budget Committee, Representative Phil Gramm of Texas resigned from Congress today and announced that he would run for re-election as a Republican. . .
Texas remains a competitive two-party state, maybe till the present day. The Democratic Party is a modest but perceptible amoun more conservative.
What other changes do you see which might happen?