# Bill Clements William P. "Bill" Clements Jr. (1917–2011) was an oil-drilling businessman who in 1978 became the first Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction, a landmark of the state's [[Southern Strategy]] realignment from a one-party Democratic state into a Republican stronghold. He served two non-consecutive terms (1979–1983 and 1987–1991), losing his reelection bid in 1982 before returning in 1986. Clements's 1978 win is the electoral hinge of the Texas story told in the [[Texas History Hub]]: it marked the beginning of the end of Democratic dominance and prefigured the full Republican capture engineered a generation later by [[Karl Rove]] and [[George W. Bush]]. ## See Also - [[Southern Strategy]] - [[Karl Rove]] - [[George W. Bush]] - [[Texas History Hub]]