By Mary Clare Jalonick
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 32

Delegates: 124

Chairman: Lt. Gov. Rick Perry

Hotel: Marriott (215) 625-9000

1996 Election:
Dole – 49%
Clinton – 44%
Perot – 7%

Most members of Texas' focal-point convention delegation were headed for Philadelphia with two at least slightly divergent motives.

The first was to hail their home-state hero, Gov. George W. Bush, as the Republican nominee for president. The second was to promote a socially conservative platform for the Republican Party - an instinct Bush might prefer that they temper as he seeks to project a more centrist image for the November election.

The state's 124 delegates - all of whom are supporting Bush, who easily won the March 14 Texas primary - by and large oppose abortion rights: Delegation leaders estimate that an overwhelming majority of the delegates are social conservatives.

However, the disagreements within the Texas Republican contingent over abortion this year were less visceral than in the run-up to the 1996 convention.

That year, some abortion opponents attempted to keep Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison from being a delegate after she commented publicly that the party should consider taking a broader view of the abortion issue. Opponents relented only after the state's other senator, abortion opponent Phil Gramm, said he would not go as a delegate if Hutchison were refused a spot.

With Texans seeing themselves as more in the spotlight this year, some abortion opponents and other conservative activists said they have "matured" since the 1996 party meeting in San Diego.

They strongly urged Bush to pick a vice presidential candidate who opposes abortion rights, but were reluctant to say there were any circumstances under which they would not support Bush's general election campaign. Texas delegates repeatedly say they are very conscious of not "embarrassing" their governor.

"There is a tendency to give more leeway to your favorite son," said Roy V. Casanova Jr., an alternate delegate who is national legislative director of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly.

Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, who would move up to governor if Bush was elected president, is delegation chairman. He and state party Chairman Susan Weddington received accolades from delegates across the party spectrum for conducting the June state Republican convention with civility and unity in mind. The similar event four years ago was contentious and controversial.

The Republican trend of recent years in the South has profoundly changed politics in Texas - which 36 years ago was hailing the nomination of another favorite son, President Lyndon B. Johnson, by the Democrats. (That 1964 convention was held in Atlantic City, N.J., not far from Philadelphia.)

Perry narrowly won for lieutenant governor in 1998, but his election cemented a total Republican control of all 29 statewide offices. The once-looming Democratic edge in the U.S. House delegation is down to 17-13, with Republicans crowing that they will capture the advantage after the redistricting that will follow completion of the 2000 census.

Hutchison and Gramm will return as delegates, as will Rep. Henry Bonilla, named in July as a temporary co-chairman of the Republican National Convention. The only other member of Congress who will attend as a delegate is Rep. Joe L. Barton. Three state senators and four state representatives will also be delegates.

But when mentioning key players, most delegates interviewed by Congressional Quarterly pointed to social conservative leaders: Chuck Anderson and Dick Weinhold of the state Christian Coalition; Republican National Committeeman Tim Lambert; and Cathie Adams, president of the state's Eagle Forum, an organization of conservative activists.

TEXAS NOTABLES: Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, the delegation chairman; Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phil Gramm; Reps. Henry Bonilla and Joe L. Barton; Texas Republican Party Chairman Susan Weddington; Republican National Committeeman Tim Lambert; Texas Christian Coalition Executive Director Chuck Anderson; Texas Christian Coalition Chairman Dick Weinhold; Texas Eagle Forum President Cathie Adams.