More than 400 years ago, in the 1540s, the conquistador Francisco Coronado and his men rode their horses over the plains of the land they called the Llano Estacado, or “flat palisades,” land that is now the plains of West Texas. They saw a vast empty land, gradually and imperceptibly rising in elevation to the west, with only scrub vegetation and small bands of Comanche Indians. What they did not see, lying far beneath the surface, was oil, discovered in the 1940s in large amounts in the Permian Basin. When oil was found, two tiny county seats 25 miles apart suddenly became small cities—Odessa, home of the roughneck oil well workers, and Midland, the more upscale town where oil entrepreneurs lived and started their own Petroleum Club. The Permian Basin boomed in the years just after World War II. In 1940, Ector and Midland counties had a population of 26,000. By 1960, they had grown to 159,000. Midland in the 1950s was an affluent town by west Texas standards, but hardly a luxurious town. Air conditioning had not yet become standard in homes or schools, and there were no mansions at the edge of town, just barren desert and oil derricks. George and Barbara Bush moved to the Permian Basin in 1948 in search of success in the oil industry and room for a growing family. They rented houses in Odessa before upgrading to a series of larger, but by no means grand, ranch houses in Midland.

Since then, growth has slowed, as new discoveries have grown fewer, but the area still yields about 80% of the state’s oil and 30% of its gas. Midland’s unemployment rate in 2008 was among the lowest in the nation following the oil-price boom, but the familiar boom-and-bust fears pervaded as the subsequent price drop quickly led to the closing of dozens of rigs. Republican President George W. Bush and his wife Laura, also from Midland, came here immediately after leaving Washington, D.C. in January 2009, and enjoyed a local reception as warm as their Washington departure was chilly.

The 11th Congressional District of Texas covers much of West Texas and encompasses 36 counties. The district sweeps 400 miles across much of the state, beginning in the hills of fast-growing Burnet County just north of Austin and Gillespie County, home to Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. To the west is oil-producing Loving County, on the New Mexico border. With 55 people in 2007, it was the least populous county the United States. Geographically the district is larger than 12 states; 54% of the population is in Midland, Ector and Tom Green (San Angelo) counties. None of the other counties have more than 39,000 people. The district’s Hispanic population is 33% and poverty is a bit above the national average, but no longer as pervasive as when Lyndon Johnson was a kid.

Politically, West Texas in the 1940s was, like nearly every other part of Texas, almost totally Democratic. That began to change in the 1950s as Midland moved toward Republicans. Newcomers like the Bushes were an important part of this trend. The current 11th District is overwhelmingly Republican, and the first district in which Midland and Odessa have been dominant. In 2004, the 11th District cast 78% of its votes for Bush, his highest percent in the nation. In 2008, John McCain did almost as well. His 75% was his fifth-best district in the nation.