I have made that argument about how California is different than Texas and how Texas was Democrat yet has been holding out better against the left versus Cal. which was Republican but was conquered fairly easily by the left.
Texas was Democrat but social conservative, and California was Republican but social liberal, Texas was more organically conservative with a deeper, more in-the-blood natural conservatism.
Kennedy’s fateful trip to Texas was with the intention of mending the rift between the conservative and liberal wings of the Texas Democratic Party.