The Catholic vote

[jimrtex]

The most Catholic non-Hispanic part of the state also clearly sticks out as the most Republican. Sure Texas Germans have always been Republican, but that proves that other factors were at play here, not simply being Catholic (also worth nothing LBJ's home state advantage and being from the region next election clearly trumped JFK's Catholicism in a factor of what was more important for a swing.)

German Texans were not strongly Catholic.  Much of the migration to Texas was through colonization, and depending on where the emigrants came from determined whether they were Lutheran or Catholic.

[jimrtex]

The most Catholic non-Hispanic part of the state also clearly sticks out as the most Republican. Sure Texas Germans have always been Republican, but that proves that other factors were at play here, not simply being Catholic (also worth nothing LBJ's home state advantage and being from the region next election clearly trumped JFK's Catholicism in a factor of what was more important for a swing.)

German Texans were not strongly Catholic.  Much of the migration to Texas was through colonization, and depending on where the emigrants came from determined whether they were Lutheran or Catholic.

Generally, the "German Counties" to the north of San Antonio tended to be settled by Catholic Germans (and the occasional Catholic Czech/Bohemian) and the "German Counties" along the Coastal Plain between Houston and Corpus Christi tended to be settled by Lutheran Germans. But neither area was monolithically one religion or the other.

Can you provide a source for this claim?

[jimrtex]

I'd be rather surprised if the Texas Germans didn't convert and intermarry as much as Midwestern Germans did.

The only specific references I could find of German Catholic communities were of Muenster and Marienfeld (now Stanton), which are distinctly outside the German Belt.  While the Hill Country was more highly concentrated, most German immigration was in the San Antonio-Austin-Houston triangle (the Hill Country is not particularly good farming area).   Some of the earliest immigration to the Hill Country (during the Republic period) was of malcontents, including freethinkers, that the German princes were trying to get rid of.  Later immigrants were more economically motivated.  Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels was Lutheran, but was charged with founding Lutheran and Catholic churches in New Braunfels.

The only particular group that is noted as having a tradition of immigration for religion freedom is the Wends (around Serbin), and they are Lutheran (Missouri Synod).

If you look at the 1960 map, Lavaca County stands out in its Kennedy support.  But Lavaca County has a very high percentage of Czechs, who in Texas are mostly Moravian and Catholic, rather than the more typically Bohemian groups of the Midwest.

The areas north of San Antonio, including both the Hill Country and areas to the northeast (Comal, Guadeloupe) voted Republican because they were German, not because they were Catholic.  The areas further east voted Democratic because they were more like the rest of Texas.

I doubt that there was that much intermarriage by 1960, particularly in rural areas, unless there were relatively few Catholics and no parish church.  But the absence of the Catholics would preclude much intermarriage in absolute terms, even if relatively more Catholics intermarried.

Incidentally, it is 31 miles between Kenedy and Nixon in Texas.