Harris County: A Major Player In The March 4 Presidential Primary

The Houston Chronicle notes:

Thrown into fire-alarm mode, presidential campaigns worked to gather voting strength in the Houston area Wednesday as Texas gained the sudden and unexpected status as gateway to the nominations for both major parties.

This is no surprise. Houston is the fourth-largest city in America, rich in traditional Democratic constituents, and also rich in GOP voters (especially anti-tax wingnuts who worship at the feet of State Sen. and right wing radio chatterbox Dan Patrick (R-Houston). Plus, in terms of getting a huge boost for delegates going toward the overall count it takes to win the state, Houston is a significant player.

The Chron article, however, doesn’t really get into a lot more detail as the headline would believe you it does. It mainly talks about supporters coming out of the woodwork, campaigns’ plans, etc. It doesn’t really talk about the demographics of Houston or anything like that, which would actually tell you more of why the city (and Harris County) are important in the primary other than its sheer size.

While our Houston-area colleagues like Kuff, Muse, PDiddie, Stace and the folks at Feet To The Fire are more qualified to address this, we do want to throw our two-cents in.

Houston, for Democrats, will be a major player because Harris County is in a mood for change and is preparing for a blue sweep in November. A strong coordinated campaign is already on the ground, and its resources will help turn out the vote, meaning you can probably expect higher-than-normal turnout, making the county even more voter-rich than previous election results would indicate. In addition, hotly contested legislative primaries are already helping turn out the vote, which will actually have an up-ballot impact on both presidential primaries (especially for R’s, where some R’s may be displeased with the field and be ready to stay home if it weren’t for contested primaries like Harris County DA and the Van Arsdale primary in Tomball).

Second, because of a couple of political scandals (both against R’s)–the indictment saga of Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina and the ongoing contempt/sexy and racist email saga whirling around DA Chuck Rosenthal, you will see some GOP voters and more independent voters disenchanted by the Republicans and, possibly, looking to make change by voting as Democrats.

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