Before the flight suit on the aircraft carrier or the bullhorn at Ground Zero, George W. Bush was just a guy in Austin trying to figure out how to run a state that usually hated Republicans. Honestly, if you look back at the mid-90s, Texas was a weird place politically. The Democrats still held the keys to the house, and Ann Richards, the incumbent governor, was a legend with a wit that could shave a cactus.
Then came 1994. Bush, known mostly as the son of a former president and the guy who co-owned the Texas Rangers, pulled off what many thought was impossible. He didn't just win; he changed the DNA of Texas politics. When George Bush governor of Texas becomes the topic of conversation today, it’s usually filtered through the lens of his later presidency. But his six years in the Governor's Mansion were a masterclass in a brand of "compassionate conservatism" that actually worked because he had no other choice.
The Odd Couple: Bush and Bob Bullock
You can't talk about George Bush as governor without talking about Bob Bullock. Bullock was the Lieutenant Governor, a Democrat, and basically the most feared man in Texas. He was a chain-smoking, hard-drinking (at least in his earlier days), pistol-packing political giant. On paper, they should have been at each other's throats.
Instead, they became incredibly close.
Bush realized early on that in Texas, the Lieutenant Governor actually has more legislative power than the Governor. He spent his first few months literally courting Bullock. They had breakfast constantly. They talked about their shared struggle with alcohol. Bullock eventually became so fond of Bush that he endorsed the Republican for reelection in 1998 over his own party's candidate. It was wild. This bipartisan bromance is what allowed Bush to pass his "Big Four" agenda: education reform, tort reform, changes to the juvenile justice system, and welfare reform.
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Education Reform: The "Texas Miracle" or Just Good PR?
If you ask what Bush cared about most in Austin, it was the schools. He was obsessed. He called himself the "Education Governor," and he wasn't just whistling Dixie. He pushed through Senate Bill 1 in 1995, which basically rewrote the Texas Education Code.
The goal? Accountability.
He wanted every kid to be able to read by the third grade. To do that, he leaned hard into standardized testing—the TAAS (Texas Assessment of Academic Skills). He ended "social promotion," which is the practice of moving kids to the next grade even if they failed. Critics today argue this created a "teaching to the test" culture that still haunts us, but at the time, test scores for minority students in Texas were actually rising. It’s what gave him the "compassionate" label that he rode all the way to the White House.
The Record No One Likes to Talk About: Executions
While he was winning over Hispanics with bilingual education and suburbanites with tax cuts, Bush was also overseeing a record-breaking number of executions. Texas has always been "pro-death penalty," but under Bush, the pace was staggering.
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He presided over 152 executions.
That’s more than any other governor in modern American history. He rarely granted clemency. The only time he really blinked was for Henry Lee Lucas, a serial killer, because there were legitimate doubts about one specific murder charge. To his supporters, this was "tough on crime." To his detractors, it was a conveyor belt of state-sanctioned death that ignored the flaws in the legal system. He stayed firm, though. He always said he was confident that every person executed had "full access to the courts."
Wind Power and the Secret Green Legacy
Here is something that usually blows people's minds: George W. Bush is one of the biggest reasons Texas is a world leader in wind energy. Yeah, the "oil man" from Midland.
In 1999, he signed a law that deregulated the electricity market but included a mandate for renewable energy. He saw it as a way to diversify the Texas economy. He didn't do it because he was a climate activist; he did it because he was a businessman. He knew Texas had a lot of wind and a lot of empty land. That move laid the groundwork for Texas to eventually produce more wind power than most countries.
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What Most People Miss
- Property Tax Obsession: He tried to pass a massive tax swap—lowering property taxes by raising business taxes. His own party killed it. He was actually more "tax-flexible" than the current GOP.
- The 1998 Landslide: He won reelection with nearly 70% of the vote. He won 27% of the African American vote and nearly half of the Latino vote. Republicans haven't seen those numbers since.
- Tort Reform: He made it much harder to sue doctors and businesses. This is why Texas became a magnet for corporations in the late 90s.
Why the Texas Years Still Matter
Looking back at George Bush governor of Texas, it’s easy to see the blueprint for his presidency. The "No Child Left Behind" act was basically the Texas education plan on a national scale. His reliance on a small, tight-knit group of advisors—the "Iron Triangle" of Karen Hughes, Joe Allbaugh, and Karl Rove—started in Austin.
He operated on the idea that if you focus on three or four big things and ignore the rest, you can actually get stuff done. It’s a stark contrast to the hyper-polarized mess we see in state capitals now. He didn't want to fight culture wars; he wanted to pass bills.
If you want to understand how Texas became the red stronghold it is today, look at the 1994 election. Before Bush, Texas was a purple state with a blue tint. After him, the Democrats never won a statewide office again. That's a legacy that’s hard to ignore, whether you liked his policies or not.
Actionable Insights for History and Policy Nerds:
- Research the Bullock-Bush Letters: If you can get to the Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, look at the correspondence between him and Bob Bullock. It’s a masterclass in political pragmatism.
- Study the 1999 Renewable Energy Mandate: If you’re into energy policy, look at how the language in that bill allowed Texas to bypass the "green vs. brown" energy fight by framing wind as a property rights and business issue.
- Analyze the 1994 Exit Polls: Compare the 1994 gubernatorial exit polls to 2024. The shift in the suburban "soccer mom" and Latino vote started exactly here.