Final answer:
Throughout the 1990s, the legislature in Texas was controlled by the Democratic Party, but this began to shift towards Republican control, culminating in a significant shift in the 1994 elections. Gerrymandering and demographic changes played crucial roles in this transition.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student asked which political party controlled the legislature in Texas throughout the 1990s. During this decade, legislative control in Texas was firmly in the hands of the Democratic Party. However, this began to shift as the Republican Party gained strength, particularly evident in the elections of 1994. In that year, a significant political shift took place nationally, with Republicans taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time in over 40 years. This shift reflected broader national trends and was also influenced by changing demographic patterns and the impact of redistricting.
In Texas, the Republican Party continued to strengthen its position after the 1990s. By 2003, the party held a majority in the Texas legislature and engaged in a controversial mid-decade redistricting, as noted in the figures provided. This redistricting effort aimed to consolidate Republican control and reduce the number of Democratic seats by gerrymandering, a tactic that creates voting districts of irregular shapes to influence electoral results. This was significant as gerrymandering can affect the voting power of certain demographic groups, including the increasing Hispanic population in Texas, which grew from 8 percent of registered voters in 1986 to 20 percent by 2011.
Demographic changes and voter mobilization efforts, such as those spearheaded by organizations like MALDEF, have influenced Texas politics over the years. Although the Hispanic population, which typically leaned Democratic, increased in size, gerrymandering and other strategic political moves by Republicans sought to counterbalance this. Overall, the political landscape of Texas in the 1990s can be characterized as a period of transition from historical Democratic dominance to a rising Republican majority, which would come to full fruition in the subsequent decades.