Our great state is experiencing an explosive population boom. Yet most of the growth is in the Texas Triangle — anchored by Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio and Houston — with a combined population over 20 million. Many rural counties are declining. According to the Texas Demographic Center, more than half of the 254 counties in Texas decreased in population between 2010 and 2020, and 75 counties shrank in population between 2022 and 2023. Our state, once an agrarian and rural bastion, is urbanizing rapidly.
Texans, while living in mostly suburban and urban environments, should still care deeply about the issues facing their rural neighbors. Maintaining and strengthening rural America is crucial for food and water security, energy security and, ultimately, national security.
Historically, and by their chosen location, most rural Texans are independent-minded and traditional conservative values of limited government (both federal and state) and local control. On red meat issues such as abortion and guns, most rural Texans lean strongly to the right. Republicans have politically dominated rural Texas, everywhere except the Rio Grande valley, for decades.
Despite overwhelming rural , the Republican Party of Texas is surprisingly anti-rural and opposed to legislative solutions for the most critical issues facing rural Texans. To get elected and stay elected in Texas, Republicans have to take their marching orders from organizations linked to party leadership and megadonors — organizations such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility and the True Texas Project. These and other Republican-led advocacy groups make recommendations in elections and take positions on pending legislation. Their track record is consistently anti-rural.
Rural priorities
Based on my personal experience and discussions with rural-focused organizations, I would say the top priorities for rural Texas are ing public schools, providing access to quality health care, improving the quantity and quality of water resources, and improving communication capabilities. These four categories are important to all Texans, but the effects may be more acute in rural communities. Rural Texans struggle to access resources that their urban and suburban counterparts take for granted.
Unfortunately, these topics are not listed as legislative priorities by the current Republican Party of Texas, and bills dealing with these issues are consistently opposed by allied groups funded primarily by the party’s biggest donors.
Public education
Public schools are the backbone and leading employers in rural communities. Without their public schools, small towns like Gordon and Strawn in southern Palo Pinto County, each with fewer than 250 students, would be devastated.
The sense of community created by these public schools is exhibited by the large attendance at the revered six-man football games. The community fills the stands, often with more fans than the town population.
Yet Texans for Fiscal Responsibility ed Senate Bill 2, now signed into law, creating a multibillion-dollar voucher entitlement program that will compete for funding with public schools. And that group opposed House Bill 2, which would provide a long-overdue boost to the per-student funding allotment, calling it a “massive new funding for public schools,” as if paying teachers a competitive salary were a bad thing.
Rural health care
According to the Texas Organization of Rural and Community Hospitals, Texas’ rural hospitals provide health care access for 13% of the population yet cover 85% of the state’s geography. At least 20 rural hospitals have closed since 2010, and only 40% of our state’s 158 rural hospitals still provide obstetrical care. The most isolated areas of Texas are more than 75 miles from the nearest hospital, and 74 counties do not have a hospital at all. More than 100,000 Texans live in one of 32 counties with no primary care doctor.
In the current legislative session, House Bill 18 by Rep Gary VanDeaver, R-New Boston, seeks to stabilize rural health care delivery, workforce development and enhance telemedicine access to ensure that rural Texans can receive high-quality care close to home. But Texans for Fiscal Responsibility opposes HB 18 because it “expands rural hospital grants and bureaucracy.”
Water resources
The Texas population is expected to exceed 51 million by 2070 and current water resources to supply this growing population are grossly inadequate. Texas will need to invest at least $154 billion over the next 50 years in new supplies and infrastructure to meet the demand, according to Texas 2036.
Agriculture is the largest of Texas water, with irrigation using 53% of total water and 74% of Texas groundwater, according to the Texas Water Development Board. Needless to say, water shortages, while affecting all Texans, are even more acutely felt by rural citizens in drought prone areas.
In 2023, a constitutional amendment creating the Texas Water Fund to assist in financing water projects in the state was approved by almost 78% of Texas voters. But the True Texas Project opposed the amendment, and stated, “This fund is socialistic and is government ownership of means of production.”
This session, House t Resolution 7 by Rep. Cody Harris, R-Palestine, satisfies Gov. Greg Abbott‘s emergency request for action on this issue and proposes a constitutional amendment to dedicate a portion of the revenue derived from state sales taxes to the Texas Water Fund. This would follow the designated funds model used by the Texas Department of Transportation. But Texans for Fiscal Responsibility opposed it due to “billions in new constitutional spending.”
It would appear from the stances taken against funds dedicated to statewide water development that these groups, and the party they control, seek privatization of water, similar to their stance on schools.
Communication
Nearly a third of rural Texans don’t have internet access at adequate speeds, according to Texas 2036. This digital divide costs the state more than $5 billion in lost economic activity. Nearly 1 million rural Texans cannot participate in remote learning, telemedicine or e-commerce. Rural communities sometimes pay up to five times more for at-home broadband services than suburban communities.
A constitutional amendment was ed in 2023 that created the broadband infrastructure fund to expand high-speed internet access and assist in the financing of connectivity projects. Texans for Fiscal Responsibility opposed the measure, calling the amendment “corporate welfare.”
Shortsighted decisions like these will increase the rural exodus and ultimately increase costs for the rural Republican base.
How long will rural Texans continue ing Republican politicians who clearly do not listen to the needs of rural Texas? To quote the classic Wolf Brand Chili commercial, “Well, that‘s too long!”