Essay On Texas Legislative Branch

The Texas legislative branch is the most powerful branch in the Texas government. The demographics of the branch poorly represent the make of the Texas’ population. The state of Texas has approximately a fifty-fifty split between men and women. The Texas House of Representatives are split with a twenty-one percent to seventy-nine percent men representation. The senate differs slightly in that women make-up twenty-three percent of the senate and men make-up seventy-seven percent of the senate. Furthermore, the Texas population is about fourth-seven percent Democrat and fifty-three percent Republican. However, due to gerrymandering, and discouraged voters and nonvoters the actual legislative representation of the legislative branch is disproportionately

misrepresented. There are about thirty-five percent Democrats in the Senate and about thirty-seven percent Democrats in the House. The racial make-up of Texas is forty-five percent white, twelve percent black, thirty-eight percent Hispanic, and four percent Asian. However, make-up of the Texas House is sixty-six percent white, twelve percent black, twenty-one percent Hispanic, and one percent Asian, and the make-up of the Texas Senate is seventy percent white, seven percent black, twenty-three percent Hispanic, and zero percent Asian. The House and Senate are also disproportionately wealthier, and more educated compared the Texas population.
There are many single elected Texas executives due the nature of the Texas constitution.

Some positions are the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, etc. The positions largely consist of older individuals in the age range of 45-80. They are mostly white, and men. They are generally wealthier individuals with multiple income sources likely due to the low wages paid by the legislative branch. Many of them have a background in business, and law firms. Also, the members are highly educated nearly all of them have college

degrees.
The groups that are overrepresented in the legislative branch are men, whites, wealthy individuals, and educated individuals. There are far more men in the senate and house than women largely due to family structure, and patriarchal attitudes. Whites are also overrepresented in the senate and house. Almost the entire House and Senate has a higher income than the Texas median household income this is probably due to only well off individuals being able to run because the Texas representatives are paid very little once in office.
Issues that overrepresented are business interests, military interests, and interests of the wealthy.

Since, most of the senate and house come from and are funded by people with those interests. Women’s issues like reproductive health/rights, income inequality, domestic violence are not properly represented in the senate and house. Minority issues such as racial justice, LGBTQ rights, income inequality, police brutality, housing, etc. are also underrepresented due to them having little relevance to the make-up of the Texas representatives. People who vote and people with similar make-up to the Texas representatives are more likely to get laws and policies they prefer.

Certain candidates will get elected rather than other candidates due to them having more education, better campaign resources provided, money, benefactors, wealth, etc. Also there is also intentionally improper districting which leads to improper representation, and huge advantages to certain

individuals.
To help improve the demographic composition of Texas branches there are many steps we could take. Putting an end to gerrymandering would open the floodgates to proper representation, and proper districts being created within Texas. Also, putting a cap on how much businesses, and wealthy individuals can donate, and allowing unions/workers to organize and donate to political causes would help the traditionalist Texas branches. In addition, increasing the salaries would allow individuals without multiple sources of income to become government officials. Also making voting easier, and more accessible would help create better representation. A unique idea would be lowering the voting age to 17 years in Texas, and registering all eligible voters in their final year of high school, and providing a very small tax break to those who vote.