Because Perry went into politics and started running for office, it actually was even more difficult for him.
He ran as a Democrat to get started where he was from, because that is what you did, period. You didn’t run as a Republican in fact you couldn’t. No GOP infrastructure. His whole family as far back as he knew, were Democrats. His parents who still lived there where he lived were Democrats. All his neighbors, etc.
That didn’t mean they accepted all of what the Democrats did, but they tried to pick and choose. Perry says he supported Gore in ‘88 because Gore was, he believed, the most conservative Dem running that year. When Dukakis became the nominee, Perry says he voted for George H W Bush for President.
Many, many Texas Dems became ticket splitters. They would vote in the general perhaps for a Republican Presidential nominee, maybe, eventually, a Senate candidate. But in House races and for the Texas Legislature, judges and cabinet members and for their local city councils, etc they continued to vote Democrat.
Until fairly recently...
How correct you are. I live in Sam Rayburns home county....and this last time around in 2010 there was not one Democrat elected in the local elections. The Republicans had a clean sweep....truly unbelievable of what has happened to the Democrat party in this the former bastion of their rule. In the 50's all the way up to the 80's they used to have difficulty finding Republican election judges...Actually having first having a weekend place in Fannin county in the mid 90's and calling it our permanent residence (for insurance purposes)there was few registered Republicans when we went to vote....didn't take long to find one's name!