There was no drama or suspense, but Texas finally played a bit role in the presidential election Tuesday. It gave Mitt Romney enough delegates to secure the Republican nomination.
Romney won 71 percent of the statewide vote in early returns, according to the Texas secretary of state’s office. The former Massachusetts governor drew slightly less in Tarrant County, with 69.8 percent.
Texas had 152 delegates at stake Tuesday night, and Romney won his proportional share of them to formally clinch the race. He surpassed the 1,144 delegates needed to claim the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in August.
“I am honored that Americans across the country have given their support to my candidacy and I am humbled to have won enough delegates to become the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential nominee,” Romney said in a statement. “Our party has come together with the goal of putting the failures of the last 31/2 years behind us.”
Romney did not come to Texas for the primary. He campaigned in Colorado and attended a fundraiser in Las Vegas with Donald Trump.
The Republican National Committee effectively confirmed Romney’s standing.
“I congratulate Gov. Romney on winning the Texas primary and securing the delegates needed to be our party’s official nominee at our convention in Tampa,” Chairman Reince Priebus said.
Ron Paul’s Role
Rep. Ron Paul, R-Lake Jackson, who has ceased active campaigning, had a fitful home-state primary. The 10.1 percent of the statewide vote did not measure up to his enthusiastic base. He also had 10.1 percent of the vote in Tarrant County.
Paul, who is retiring from Congress, is looking to have a forum for his libertarian ideas.
“Ron Paul is looking for a role in the convention where he can make his points for the last time,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University.
On the Democratic side, President Barack Obama coasted to a win, with 88 percent of the vote in early returns. He benefited from high minority turnout for contested races, which kept him from suffering another weak showing against marginal players, as he had in recent primaries in Arkansas, Kentucky and West Virginia, where he lost 40 percent of the vote.
In Tarrant County, Obama won 95 percent of the vote in early returns.
Both anticlimactic primaries, especially the Republican one, galled the state’s political players, who saw Texas’ role as kingmaker slip away as redistricting lawsuits pushed the election date back from March 6, Super Tuesday.
“I think the delayed process effectively took Texas out of the presidential game,” said Bill Miller, an Austin-based adviser to candidates in both parties. Tuesday’s vote gave the Texas GOP the final seal, he said, “but what generates excitement is competition.”
Texas will “bestow” the nomination, University of Texas at Austin political scholar Bruce Buchanan said, “but not decide the nominee, as it wanted to do.”
“It’s Finally Over”
University of Virginia presidential expert Larry Sabato said, “Well, it’s finally over, and how ironic that Texas is putting Mitt Romney over the top since if the state had voted on schedule March 6, Gingrich or Santorum probably would have won the popular vote.”
On that date, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and former Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., were giving Romney a run for his money as voters in 10 states cast ballots.
Gingrich and Santorum were still on the Texas ballot Tuesday, as well as others who had long ago exited the race, including Michele Bachmann and Jon Huntsman. But the name Texans would know best — Gov. Rick Perry — was not.
Perry took advantage of a brief window that reopened in March, when the primary date was moved, to remove his name from the ballot, according to Chris Elam, spokesman for the Texas GOP.
That, political observers say, was a masterstroke after a mistake-prone campaign. Perry ended his candidacy Jan. 19.
“That was a wise thing,” said former U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas. “He didn’t want to be embarrassed in his home state.”
Buchanan said, “I think it was smart of Perry to get off the ballot. People will now have to conjure the memory of his flameout on their own.”
Perry played a minimal role in the Texas presidential stakes — he endorsed Gingrich after dropping out, then Romney when Gingrich dropped out. Perry used the election and “whatever political capital he has left” to help Lt. Gov. Dave Dewhurst get the U.S. Senate nomination, Miller said.
So, if Texas was passed over this primary cycle when it came to influence, what’s left for the general election?
“Texas is automatically Republican in November by a wide margin,” Sabato said.
But the Lone Star State’s finances are still up for grabs.
“Texas has the role of ATM in the presidential campaign,” Frost said, “on both sides.”
© 2012 McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. Truthout has licensed this content. It may not be reproduced by any other source and is not covered by our Creative Commons license.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy