Dante Chinni writes Politics Counts every Friday. Mr. Chinni is the director of the American Communities Project at American University, which examines different types of communities across the U.S.

For students of politics and demographics, Texas has the look of a state in transition.

The Lone Star State is a Republican Party stronghold, and also is home to a growing number of Hispanics, who tend to vote Democratic, as 2012 showed. Despite Texas’ large Hispanic population, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney swept the state in 2012, winning by 16 percentage points.