Texas Primary Facts and Figures

Compiled by the U.S.News & World Report library staff

Presidential Primary Winners

Democrats

• 1988 Michael Dukakis
• 1992 Bill Clinton
• 1996 Bill Clinton
• 2000 Al Gore
• 2004 John Kerry

Republicans

• 1988 George H. W. Bush
• 1992 George H. W. Bush
• 1996 Bob Dole
• 2000 George W. Bush
• 2004 George W. Bush

Sources:
Texas Secretary of State
America Votes (CQ Press)
Associated Press

2008 Voter Registration

12,607,466 registered voters as of January 2008

Source: Texas Secretary of State

Registration Demographics

Texas voter registration forms do not ask for applicants' race, so while there is no formal demographic data by which to identify the racial makeup of Texas's registered voters, there is another way to better understand the state's voter registrations by race.

Every odd year, Texas runs a constitutional amendment election. Pre-election materials are available in English and Spanish. For cost effectiveness, Spanish-language pre-election mailings are sent to just those households where Spanish might be spoken. Since this information is not collected via the registration forms, the Elections Division uses data collected by the U.S. Bureau of the Census to identify Spanish surnames. While it's not a perfect science, this method helps them provide voters with advance information.

Here is the breakdown for the most recent numbers available:

• Hispanic males:  1,033,560
• Hispanic females:  1,270,873
• Hispanic, gender unidentified/not specified:  275,940

Other (which includes Caucasian, African-American, Native American, Asian, and other):

• Female:  4,638,291
• Male:  4,0942,786

Gender not identified/not specified: 1,361,262

Source: Texas Secretary of State

General Election Winners

• 1988 George H. W. Bush
• 1992 George H. W. Bush
• 1996 Bob Dole
• 2000 George W. Bush
• 2004 George W. Bush

Sources:
Texas Secretary of State
America Votes (CQ Press)

Exit Poll Demographics

2004 Primaries

Gender

• Male:  47%
• Female:  53%

Race

• White:  52%
• African-American:  21%
• Latino:  24%
• Asian:  1%
• Other:  2%

Age

• 18-29:  10%
• 30-44:  22%
• 45-64:  48%
• 65 and older:  19%

Source: CNN.com

3 Things You Didn't Know About Texas Primaries and Elections

1. The Texas Constitution of 1876 provided for suffrage laws. Texas's early suffrage laws granted the right to vote to all persons age 21 or above provided they met residence requirements, paid a poll tax if they were under 60, and were free from certain disqualifications relating to mental condition, pauperism, conviction of crime, and connection with the armed services.

2. The election of 1964 was the first one in which no poll tax was required to vote in federal elections, though the tax still survived for state and local elections. The 24th Constitutional Amendment went into effect in late-1964, abolishing the Texas poll tax as a voting requirement for federal elections.

3. Between 1923 and 1944, Texas's Democratic Party used a succession of statutory provisions to bar African-Americans from its primaries. Because Texas was a one-party state, and the primaries decided who held office, this practice prevented African-Americans from participating in the political process. These statutory provisions were always contested, but the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the Texas Democratic Party was a "voluntary association" and therefore exempt from state jurisdiction. In 1940, Lonnie E. Smith, a black dentist from Houston, fought this exclusion in the courts; defeated in the lower courts, Smith v. Allwright was eventually heard in the U.S. Supreme Court—with Thurgood Marshall arguing in favor of Smith—where, by a 8-1 decision, the court ruled that a state could not "permit a private organization to practice racial discrimination."

Sources:
Handbook of Texas Online
Oyez.org
Texas Constitution of 1876