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Hispanic vote key in Hillary Clinton's Texas victory
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, March 5th 2008, 11:33 AM
Gershon/Getty Hillary Clinton intensely courted the Latino vote in Texas.
If Hillary Clinton ends up clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, she may have to thank Hispanic Texans.
Hispanics voted in force in Texas, making up a third of voters — up from the quarter they comprised in the state's Democratic primary in 2004.
The New York senator won 67 percent of the votes of Hispanics in Texas, one of her best showings yet with them. They were negligible in Ohio, where she also won the primaries.
Clinton had intensely courted the Latino vote in Texas in the previous weeks, and was expected to fare better than Obama.
However, the strength of her lead among Hispanic voters was surprising.
"I think [Obama] expected to cut into her Latino vote a little bit more than that," said Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at University of Texas-Pan American in the Rio Grande Valley.
Clinton showed renewed strength Tuesday in Texas and Ohio among whites and working-class voters who had begun deserting her in recent contests, results from exit polls showed.
The New York senator essentially limited Sen. Barack Obama to groups that have supported his candidacy from the start of this year's Democratic presidential contest — and even lured some of his usual backers.
The Illinois senator got solid support from blacks and young voters in both states and the college educated in Texas.
But at least for now, his recent inroads into some of her core groups, like women, the less educated and older voters, seemed staunched.
Clinton even showed signs of eating into pivotal sources of Obama's usual coalition.
In both states, she won liberal voters and they evenly split independents, and they were even in Ohio among college graduates and those making $100,000 or more — all bastions of Obama loyalists.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wednesday, March 5th 2008, 11:33 AM
Gershon/Getty Hillary Clinton intensely courted the Latino vote in Texas. If Hillary Clinton ends up clinching the Democratic presidential nomination, she may have to thank Hispanic Texans.
Hispanics voted in force in Texas, making up a third of voters — up from the quarter they comprised in the state's Democratic primary in 2004.
The New York senator won 67 percent of the votes of Hispanics in Texas, one of her best showings yet with them. They were negligible in Ohio, where she also won the primaries.
Clinton had intensely courted the Latino vote in Texas in the previous weeks, and was expected to fare better than Obama.
However, the strength of her lead among Hispanic voters was surprising.
"I think [Obama] expected to cut into her Latino vote a little bit more than that," said Jerry Polinard, a political science professor at University of Texas-Pan American in the Rio Grande Valley.
Clinton showed renewed strength Tuesday in Texas and Ohio among whites and working-class voters who had begun deserting her in recent contests, results from exit polls showed.
The New York senator essentially limited Sen. Barack Obama to groups that have supported his candidacy from the start of this year's Democratic presidential contest — and even lured some of his usual backers.
The Illinois senator got solid support from blacks and young voters in both states and the college educated in Texas.
But at least for now, his recent inroads into some of her core groups, like women, the less educated and older voters, seemed staunched.
Clinton even showed signs of eating into pivotal sources of Obama's usual coalition.
In both states, she won liberal voters and they evenly split independents, and they were even in Ohio among college graduates and those making $100,000 or more — all bastions of Obama loyalists.