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Before the Civil War voter turnout in midterm elections in Texas and the South was comparable to turnout nationwide. With the return to full participation after the gap caused by Civil War and Reconstruction, the South began a slide in voter participation not appreciably reversed until the passage of voting rights legislation in the early 1960s. Unlike the rest of the South, Texas experienced a precipitous drop in participation as Reconstruction came to a tumultuous end in the state in 1874. After passage of a new constitution, the battles surrounding agrarian populist and progressive politics pushed Texas voter participation to record heights by 1895 when progressive Governor James Hogg left office. From that point until the 1960s, participation in U.S. House elections in Texas largely followed the Southern pattern of decline driven by racial politics, active voter disenfranchisement, and a Democratic Party monopoly on power.