Right now Texas is simply voting more demographically in line to what it was before! And have you seen the types of people moving to Texas? They are largely conservative! The Democratic lock out in Texas will be over if it not already over but you could argue that maybe, just maybe, Texas was inflatedly Republican.
I think you’re conflating voting patterns with margins here. The Democratic base in 1990’s Texas was very different than the one that is currently rising up. The last Democratic nominee for President that won Texas carried the modern day boundaries of TX-13. The maps for winning statewide Democratic Party members in the 1990’s had far more rural support while siphoning off votes in the suburbs to the GOP.
The floor of liberals + millenials (Texas iirc is the second or third youngest state by median age), and minorities is not only rising but is also forming a generic left wing voting bloc. Somebody as left wing as Beto wouldn’t have had a snowball’s chance in Hell winning statewide in 1990.
