In office when Galveston was destroyed by the powerful 1900 hurricane, Hawley decided not to seek reelection. Hawley also realized the likely effects of the poll tax passed by the Texas legislature in 1901, which sharply reduced voting by minorities and poor whites. Total voter participation dropped markedly in the state in the early 1900s essentially ending Republican and Populist competition and leaving elections to be dominated by white Democrats. From 1890 to 1910 all states of the former Confederacy passed measures to disfranchise blacks and exclude them from the political process.