Until I talked to political historian Jeff Roche by phone a few days ago, I thought I might be writing this column from Deaf Smith County, maybe with a boot propped on a rail fence at Diamond Cattle ...

For the first Europeans to encounter it, the Llano Estacado was a portal to madness. It was a “worthless and terrifying hellscape,” as Jeff Roche describes it in The Conservative Frontier: Texas and ...

In “The Conservative Frontier,” Jeff Roche makes the case that the modern Republican Party was born in West Texas. By Paul Begala Paul Begala is a political strategist from Missouri City, Texas. He ...

RIVERTON—Cowboy hats cast shadows under the fluorescent lights of an exhibition hall at the county fairgrounds. The crowd — an array of solid, paisley and plaid pearl-snap shirts — chatted till an ...