The Klan began to participate in politics in order to cleanse this arena of corruption and to legislate their idea of moral behavior. Because it attracted, at least in the beginning, "respectable" members of society, the Klan quickly gained significant political power at the state and local levels of government. In Texas for instance the Klan was able to elect a number of local officials in Austin, Houston, and Dallas. Historians feel that members of the Klan probably constituted a majority of the Texas legislature between 1922 and 1924. The Texas Klan even had one of its own, Earl B. Mayfield of Austin, elected to the U. S. Senate at the height of its power. The Klan grew so powerful on the national scene by 1924 that opponents were unable to convince the Democratic party's convention that year to censure the Klan for its intolerance and violent methods.