Texas stays firmly in the red column

Although President Bush’s approval rating has dipped to all-time lows and Democratic candidate Barack Obama swept to a convincing victory in the presidential race that had some red states turning blue, the Lone Star state remained a bastion of support for Republicans Tuesday.

Neither President-elect Obama nor his opponent, Sen. John McCain, campaigned in Texas after their respective party primaries because the results here were never in doubt. McCain had a comfortable 11-point lead statewide and led by 12 percentage points in Tarrant County. U.S. Sen John Cornyn won relection handily and Republicans looked as if they would retain a huge majority of their 34 seats in the U.S. House of representatives.

Popular Congresswoman Kay Granger and Congressman Joe Barton also won handily.

"Texans are conservative on economic issues, conservative on social issues, conservative on national defense," said Republican consultant Reggie Bashur. "John McCain did not campaign here at all, did not have one office, spent not one dollar and he was still able to win."

But pundits and the results show that there may be cracks forming in the Republican foundation, perhaps giving Democrats their first opportunity in the more than 30 years to put Texas into play again on the local and national scene.

Even though an Associated Press exit poll reflected voter dissatisfaction aimed at Republicans over the economic downturn, the war in Iraq and President Bush, Republicans remained loyal when they entered the voting booth.

Incumbent Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams, Supreme Court justices Wallace Jefferson, Dale Wainwright, Phil Johnson and Court of Criminal Appeals judges Tom Price and Paul Womack all were poised to win re-election.

The last big hope for Democrats was to try to make gains in the state House of Representatives, where Republicans held a 79-71 majority. Democrats needed a net gain of five seats to take over as the majority and oust Republican Speaker Tom Craddick of Midland.

And in Harris County, the state’s most populous, Houston-area voters appeared to be giving Democrats back a number of countywide and judicial seats that the Republicans took in 1994.

More than one-third of Texans interviewed as they left their polling places approved of President Bush’s performance — much higher than the national average — and they overwhelmingly backed McCain.

According to the Associated Press, McCain was winning about two-thirds of the white vote, and nearly three-fifths of those whose families earn more than $50,000 a year.

As expected, Obama polled strongly among blacks, and Hispanics, who favored Obama 2-to-1, after nearly splitting down the middle between Democrats and Republicans in 2004.

Obama fared better in Texas’s major cities, including San Antonio, Houston, Dallas, El Paso and Austin. He also led in Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley, where the population is almost entirely Hispanic.

It is significant because Hispanics will one day become the majority in Texas, and political observers say that it may make Texas a battleground state by the next presidential election.

Texas elections officials predicted more than 9 million Texans — a record turnout — would cast ballots, representing about 68 percent of the state’s 13.5 million voters. More than 47 percent of registered voters cast their ballots in early voting.

The Associated Press contributed to this story