I think it's becuase a big part of the Texas boom is natural resources based. Look at places like ND, WY, etc. That have had economic booms based on ntl resources, which are different from the service based booms in AZ and GA. TX is kinda a hybrid of the two I'd argue.
It's weird to consider this now but it is actually true that the Texas Republicans used to be reasonably good at investing in higher education and drawing high-capital businesses (through friendly tax structures, light hand regulations, etc)
always have to remind myself that the Texas Democrats the Texas GOP replaced were, among many other things not all of which were bad, comically corrupt
Well, see, that's how they did all the bipartisanship they used to do. Sorted it all out over drinks and cigars and stacks of hundred dollar bills at the Cloak Room
Well they weren’t especially well funded until roughly 2010 when the super hard right west Texas billionaires (2 of them lol) threw in for them and went hard. They had to do better for most of my life because they usually had a slim majority but they didn’t have the money and a powerful machine then
They used to have to cater to business interests generally , to get enough ppl to donate but now they just have to please mostly these two billionaires
Or at least one of them. Factions are getting ugly lol they’re eating themselves.
But they are grabbing and consolidating all power still.
They have permissive zoning, and there's lots of space to just build another suburb. That gets you a lot of growth in a world where the major barrier is housing.
