What Happened?

On November 4, McCain won Texas' 34 electoral votes. McCain received 55.53% of the vote while Obama received 43.75% of the vote. In total votes, McCain received 4,467,748 votes to Obama's 3,521,164.

The four biggest cities in Texas, Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio, all went for Obama. Also, the southern part of Texas went heavily for Obama. This is probably due to the large Hispanic population. However, most of the state's counties did gor for McCain.

All four of the big cities also voted for Democrat Rick Noriega for Senate. However, Republican incumbant John Cornyn won the state.

It wasn't too much of a suprise that these big cities didn't vote like the rest of the state did. Dallas has been getting more purple and had a Democratic sweep in the 2006 elections. Austin has always been a liberal city. San Antonio has a large Hispanic population.

McCain Wins Battle of the Texas Papers

With all the major Texas newspaper's endorsements end, here is a tally of who got what:

Texas Papers for McCain (11):

Amarillo Globe-News

The Beaumont Enterprise

Corpus Christi Caller-Times

The Dallas Morning News

The Galveston County Daily News

Kerrville Daily Times

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

San Antonio Express-News

Tyler Morning Telegraph

Wichita Falls Times Record News

Texas Papers for Obama (7):

Austin American-Statesman

The Eagle (Bryan-College Station)

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Houston Chronicle

Longview News Journal

The Lufkin Daily News

San Angelo Standard-Times

Texas Expects High Turnout at Polls

Based on the turnout in early voting, Texas Secretary of State, Hope Andrade, predicted Monday that 9 million of the state's voters will cast ballots in this year's election.

That would represent 68 percent of Texas' 13.5 million registered voters, falling short of the turnout in 1992, which was 73 percent. 

1 Day to Go!!!

Texas has become an interesting state in this election. A historically Red state, Jimmy Carter was the last democrat to win Texas in 1976. McCain has been leading polls by a large margin. Pollster.com has McCain leading 54.3 to Obama's 40.8. However, this is not as large of a lead as most would expect. Texas is becoming a much more purple state. While it is generally more conservative, there are cities, such as Austin, that are liberal and Texas is becoming more and more liberal.

That being said, I think it is safe to call Texas for McCain. He has history and polling in his favor and Texas has not become Democratic enough for it to change this election. As you will notice, neither side has spent time campaigning in Texas, because both have figured it would go to McCain. What will be interesting is to see how Republicans do in local races. With a lot of Republicans up for re-election and Texas becoming less conservative, this could prove to be a bad election year for Republicans. 

Texas' 34 electoral votes will go to McCain. 

Texas A&M's Anti Obama Carnival

The Young Republicans at Texas A&M University held an anti-Obama carnival as a way to voice their opposition for the Democratic presidential nominee. 

The festivies included a "Socialist on a Stick" ring toss and a place to throw away your nest egg.

Of course, there were people who were offended, such as Farren Congress, who said, "You have plenty of McCain supporters out there who think this is ridiculous. Y'all are way out of hand."

But the group defended their activities. Jay Cunninghman of Texas A&M's Young Conservatives of Texas said, "And in an intelligent fashion we'd like to discuss his policies cause its not Barack Obama the man that we have the problem with. It's his socialist, liberal policies that we are concerned with."

McCain, Cornyn ahead

A University of Texas poll shows Republicans John McCain and Sen. John Cornyn leading by large margins in Texas. McCain leads Obama with a 51 percent to 40 percent margin. Cornyn, a first-term Republican from San Antonio, leads Rick Noriega, a state representative from Houston, 45 percent to 36 percent. Another 14 percent of voters remain undecided in the contest.

This survey also has another interesting find: 23 percent of Texans are convinced that Barack Obama is a Muslim. This is an unusual find because national polls show that just 5 to 10 percent of Americans still believe Obama is a Muslim.

The telephone poll was conducted by the Texas Politics Project and Department of Government at The University of Texas at Austin. The poll was conducted from Oct. 15 to 22, and had a margin of error of 4.2 percentage points.

No More ACORN for Texas Candidate

Chris Turner, the Democrat seeking the District 96 Texas House seat, has asked ACORN's state political action committee to stop campaigning for him.

"Even though there have been absolutely no allegations of any improper activities in Texas at all. . . . We felt it was best given some of the allegations from the other states that had come up this month that they no longer be involved," Turner said.

Turner, 36, is running against Republican incumbent Bill Zedler in a race that observers say could play a key role in control of the Texas House. District 96 includes south Arlington, Crowley, Kennedale and parts of Fort Worth, Mansfield, Forest Hill and Burleson.