Who Won Texas?
March 7, 2008
They call it the “Texas Two-step” – unlike every other state, the Democratic Party in Texas holds both a primary and a caucus. The problem? Hillary Clinton won the primary, but Barack Obama appears to have won the caucus. So who gets to claim the state?
Coming into the March 4 contests, Bill Clinton himself said that Hillary would need to win Texas and Ohio to stay in the running for the Democratic nomination. As the polls closed, it appeared that she had succeeded in that task. With all of the precincts reporting, she managed to edge out Barack Obama 51% to 47% (AP). She took Ohio by an even wider margin, and topped it off with a win in Rhode Island.
Her victory in Texas, however, is not what one would call complete. Since Democratic contests always award delegates proportionally, Clinton came away from the Texas primary with only 4 more delegates than Obama. After Super Tuesday was over and counted, she gained a total of 15 more delegates than Obama – not enough to catch up on his 152-delegate lead.
Complicating matters even worse for Clinton, it appears that Obama has won the Texas caucus, and will ultimately receive 3 more delegates from Texas than she will (NPR).
Clinton isn’t calling it quits, though.
She and her campaign are disputing the caucus results, claiming that “Barack Obama backers had locked Clinton voters out of several caucuses and had illegally obtained caucus packets. Under caucus rules, the packet holder runs the caucus – the first step in allocating additional candidate delegates” (Dallas Morning News). One of her campaign lawyers, Lyn Utrecht, discussed the possibility of taking legal action: “There are a number of legal options, but it’s too early to say what we will pursue.”
Adrian Saenz, the director of Obama’s campaign in Texas, responded by saying, “We are disappointed to see the Clinton campaign once again engaging in an effort to diminish the importance of the Texas caucuses and discourage Texans from participating.”
As to who won Texas, it depends on who you ask. If what matters is strictly the popular vote, Clinton will claim victory. If it matters who gets more delegates, the numbers point to Obama.
