; a proximity to Spanish-speaking North America that influences the culture, language and diets of both. But in other ways, Texas and California are not neighbours – and not just in the obvious geographical sense that New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada all come between them. Beyond the raw statistics of their respective sizes and seasides, these two big beasts concur on very little. California is a determinedly 'blue' state; it has voted for the Democrat candidate in every presidential election since George HW Bush won the race for power in 1988. Texas is coloured an even firmer shade of 'red'; the last time it failed to back a Republican for the top job, it was 1976, and Jimmy Carter was collecting the keys to the White House. These entrenched political positions (broadly liberal against staunchly conservative) are reflected in everything from levels of taxation to – as of the US Supreme Court's overturning of the 'Roe vs Wade' ruling last year – abortion rights. So why the attempt to compare them? Because, of late, there have been murmurings that Texas has eclipsed California in various fields where the 'Gold){kind=link}
The Lone Star State is challenging its Pacific rival in terms of business and innovation, and has plenty to offer holidaymakers
In some ways, you can describe them as neighbours. If you look at a league table of the 50 US states, ranked in order of size, you will notice that Texas and California sit side by side, near the top of the pile. The former is the second biggest piece of the star-striped jigsaw; a giant of 268,596 square miles, beaten only by that northern behemoth Alaska. The latter is hardly much smaller, swarming up the west coast of America as its third largest state; 163,695 fascinating square miles of mountains, forests, cities and vineyards.
There are other notional similarities too. Both states have plenty of coastline; California’s 840 miles of Pacific seashore out-stretching Texas’s 367 miles along the Gulf of Mexico. And talking of Mexico, each state has a border with the country directly to the south (1241 miles of it in Texas’s case; a more minor 140 in California’s); a proximity to Spanish-speaking North America that influences the culture, language and diets of both.
But in other ways, Texas and California are not neighbours – and not just in the obvious geographical sense that New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada all come between them. Beyond the raw statistics of their respective sizes and seasides, these two big beasts concur on very little. California is a determinedly “blue” state; it has voted for the Democrat candidate in every presidential election since George HW Bush won the race for power in 1988. Texas is coloured an even firmer shade of “red”; the last time it failed to back a Republican for the top job, it was 1976, and Jimmy Carter was collecting the keys to the White House. These entrenched political positions (broadly liberal against staunchly conservative) are reflected in everything from levels of taxation to – as of the US Supreme Court’s overturning of the “Roe vs Wade” ruling last year – abortion rights.
So why the attempt to compare them? Because, of late, there have been murmurings that Texas has eclipsed California in various fields where the “Golden State” was once deemed the more attractive option. In the swagger of its major cities, five of which – Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Austin and Fort Worth – are among the 13 biggest in the country by population.