The fact that Republicans have won every Texas statewide office since 1994 — the longest such streak in the nation — gives them, he says, “a false sense of security.”

In 2000, Republican candidates at the top of the ticket — in statewide races — averaged about 60 percent of the vote.

By 2008, they averaged less than 53 percent.

And Republican down-ballot winners averaged slightly over 51 percent.

Texas is not wide-open spaces filled with cattle and cotton fields. Actually, it is 84.7 percent urban, making it the 15th-most-urban state.

It has four of the nation’s 11 largest cities — Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and Austin. Texas’s growth is in its cities, where Republicans are doing worst.

Dallas has gone from solidly Republican to solidly Democratic. A recent poll showed Harris County (Houston), which is about 69 percent minority, with a majority identifying as Democrats.

The San Antonio metropolitan area is about three-quarters minority.

Travis County (Austin, seat of the state government, the flagship state university and a burgeoning tech economy attracting young people) voted 60.1 percent for President Obama in 2012.

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