In the Nov. 7 Observer, Hooks wrote:

Something happened this year that has not happened before — Republican-leaning voters studied specific down-ballot races and broke ranks. That’s a terrible omen for Republicans, who spent the month before the election begging voters to vote straight-ticket R. Once voters get in the habit of splitting their ballot, they’re more likely to do so in the future.

Hooks reported a conversation he had with O’Rourke last July in “a crummy hotel bar” in Lubbock, Tex. when O’Rourke talked not only about winning, but also

about the effect he hoped his race would have on the people around him. He would go to places Democrats don’t go, engage people in a politics that was collaborative, spontaneous and felt good, and hope that it gave them tools and encouragement to keep going after he was done. The success of that project was dependent on O’Rourke doing well enough, and proving the haters wrong. He did. Only time will tell what the race left behind. But according to his own terms — and let’s use a damn cuss here, in tribute to the man — it looks like he knocked it out of the … park.

In the Atlantic, Hooks cautioned that it was too early in the process of partisan transition to suggest that Texas is on the verge of turning blue, but that the Nov. 6 results “just might be the beginning of the end” of Republican dominance.

Hooks compared O’Rourke’s losing bid to that of John Tower — one of the first Republicans to break the pre-1965 Democratic stranglehold on Texas — who lost in his first attempt to win a Texas Senate seat in 1960 but went on to win in a 1961 special election.

Tower’s victory demonstrated to Texas Republicans that their ambitions were not hopeless, “that the party could bide its time, be smart, and pick off races when it could,” Hooks wrote. “That might just be — with a very strong emphasis on might — what happened to Texas Democrats in 2018.”

Despite his caution, Hooks appeared to be convinced that the 2018 election marked a turning point:

Something very strange happened here this year. Like Tower’s bid, the full payoff may not come for many years. But the state party now has what the Republican Party then needed more than anything else: A reason to start building in earnest. That’s not much, doubtless. But it just might be enough.

Perhaps the most trenchant insights concerning Texas politics were offered by a prominent Republican, Joe Straus, who is retiring after serving 10 years as Speaker of the state House of Representatives. Despite a lifetime career in Republican politics, in a postelection interview with the Texas Tribune, Straus described his own distaste for some of the leaders of the party’s right wing.

He acknowledged that he split his ticket “more than I ever have before” and cited the

infectious enthusiasm (in the O’Rourke campaign) which was brighter than what a lot of his opponents were offering.

Trump, who campaigned extensively for Cruz, demonstrated “borderline racism” at times, Straus said. Some of Trump’s “rhetoric is extremely divisive” and

It’s dark. It’s not unifying. It’s not factual in many cases, and I think that’s the wrong direction for the leader of any party.

For her part, Julie McCarty, the Tea Party stalwart in North Texas, remains firm in her commitment. She wrote her supporters:

I am called to fight for freedom and righteousness, and that is all I know to do. We continue to educate and push back as long as we have the chance … and we do still have the chance because even though we had some squeakers and some tough losses, TEXAS IS STILL A RED STATE.

Straus was more considered in his assessment of Texas politics: “The Republican Party and the state of Texas are moving in opposite directions.”

I invite you to follow me on Twitter, @Edsall.

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