Yes Virginia, Presidential Primaries Make It To Texas

Perhaps the words of Francis Church are a bit melodramatic in this instance, but but they are appropriate.

In the last decade, there has essentially never been a chance that the votes of Texans would matter in a presidential primary. That all changed today.

It has been pretty much an unspoken but known fact for at least a month that the major contenders–at least on the Democratic side–have believed the contest would head to Texas, even when Edwards was still in the race. In fact, all three camps had been making overtures for consulting services in Texas within the last 30 days (before Edwards withdrew). Starting this morning as exit polls popped up in Super Tuesday states, the word, “Texas” was on the lips of not only Texans with regard to the presidential primary but pundits, too. In fact, it is difficult to hear a mention of “Little Super Tuesday” on March 4 on CNN right now without the mention of this state.

So, what’s next? For one thing, Democrats (and Republicans, for that matter) will have a vote that counts in the presidential race. On another front, we’re going to see presidential candidates in Texas during a primary to do something more than use our wealthy contributors as ATM machines.

Stay tuned to Capitol Annex throughout the Primary. We’ll keep you up to date on all of the latest primary news. Starting later tonight, you can expect some preliminary analysis leading toward March 4.

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