Sam Rayburn, Big John Connally, Lyndon Johnson, John Nance Garner …

These guys used to symbolize the Texas Democratic Party. They were manly men, gruff, sometimes mean, usually profane and oh, so very effective at the art of politics.

Well, the party they once represented has given way to something quite different. Its key personalities this election year are two women: State Sens. Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte, the party nominees for governor and lieutenant governor, respectively.

http://www.panhandlepbs.org/blogs/state-news/2014/06/30/texas-democrats-rally-around-davis-van-de-putte/

Their party is rallying around them. Mr. Sam, Big John, LBJ and Cactus Jack all are gone.

As the Texas Tribune reports in the attached link, the state Democratic Party is hitching itself to the fortunes of these two pols.

Davis’s odds of being elected governor seem longer than Van de Putte’s chances of winning the No. 2 spot. But neither woman is shying away from a good fight against their respective opponents, Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick — who, I hasten to add, will give as good as they get from their Democratic foes.

The Texas Democratic Party has been wandering in the political wilderness since 1994, the last time anyone from that party held a statewide office in Texas. The last Democrat standing was former Comptroller John Sharp, who’s now the chancellor of the Texas A&M University system.

Will this be the year Democrats break through on the coattails of one of these women? It’s not likely, but the talk around the country is that Democrats at least might be able to make at least one of these races competitive.

I’ve noted before that single-party domination of the state’s political machinery — be it Democrat or Republican — breeds arrogance and indifference to the needs of those who don’t adhere to that party’s doctrine.

Will state Sens. Davis and Van de Putte make an actual contest out of their campaigns for the state’s top two elected offices?

One can hope.