First of all, this is Texas. A state where a teenage girl knew she was going to be beaten — not spanked, but beaten — for listening to secular music on the family computer, so she set up a hidden camera and filmed, then posted the beating online, which was participated in by both parents, who seemed to enjoy it. But, because the father was a judge or lawyer or some such, nothing ever really came of it. The video went viral some 10-15 years ago.

This is a US state which has established, through legal precedent, that women and girls are property.

As for what this actually means (I read the article), what it means is that the Republican Party wants to ban no-fault divorce, which is divorce without cause, and they want to ban single-party divorce. They want it so both parties have to agree to it. If the woman wants to leave but the man doesn't want her to, that's his property under proposed Texas law and he can retain ownership.

Of course, marriage is a business contract where assets obtained after the marriage are split. The problem with no-fault marriage, to these people, is that a woman can leave of her own volition, that her husband has to treat her well to keep her, and that she can take what's hers. What they want is a situation where a woman can't leave unless the man releases her, and if she does something to end the marriage, such as adultery (cheating on him), she can lose everything she's earned since the marriage, which further keeps her in the man's control.

And this is what a lot of Texas votes for. Of course, if you look up the big schools in Texas, and then overlay a map of these universities with a voting map, you'll see the blue spots are where the schools are, just like in any red state. People with education almost exclusively vote blue. People without... vote red.