Why am I not surprised to learn this little tidbit?

A Gallup Poll suggests that Texas Hispanics — who are comprising a rapidly growing segment of the state’s population — are more Republican than Hispanics in other states.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/07/texas-hispanics-less-democratic-those-other-states/

And to think that Democrats have been banking on the growing Hispanic population to turn the state more in their favor.

“Texas remains a Republican-leaning state because its white residents are becoming increasingly Republican and its large Hispanic population, though solidly Democratic, is less so than Hispanics nationally,” the Gallup website says.

This new polling data suggest that the Texas Democratic Party has a huge mountain to climb in its quest to turn the state into more of a battleground, let alone into a state that returns to its Democratic roots.

White Texans are continuing to support Republicans heavily. No surprise there. What does surprise some of folks, me included, is that Texas Hispanics aren’t as upset with the GOP’s refusal to act on issues dear to them. Immigration reform comes to mind, as does voter identification — two issues that play well into Democratic hands in many other parts of the country.

I’ve long been skeptical of Battleground Texas’s claim that 2014 will be a turnaround year for the state’s Democratic Party. It won’t happen this year, or maybe not even in 2016.

I hope it does turn from deeply Republican into something of a more competitive state. I long have held that competition keeps both major parties more honest. It diminishes the chances of one-party arrogance that arises from total domination.

The Gallup survey suggests, though, that more arrogance is going to in our state’s immediate political future.

Too bad.