Texas 23^rd District: San Antonio and Suburbs

The Mexican-American tradition in the part of South Texas radiating from San Antonio is anchored in two culturally conservative institutions, the Catholic Church and the United States military. Both are a major presence in San Antonio, just 150 miles north of the border, which for many years had the largest Mexican-American population of any American city and where Spanish has long been widely spoken. The church in San Antonio was led for years by liberal bishops. They also ran St. Mary’s University, which educated many Hispanic politicians and leaders, including two longtime House Democratic committee chairmen, former Reps. Henry Gonzalez and Kika de la Garza, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who graduated from St. Mary’s law school. Just as visible a presence in San Antonio are the Army and Air Force, with huge Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and the Randolph Air Force Base, all in or near the city limits. Mexican-Americans have long volunteered for military service in numbers higher than members of most other ethnic groups, and for many years, Mexican-Americans in San Antonio worked in civilian jobs for the military service. San Antonio’s Mexican-American community also has produced many politicians who are liberal on economic issues and civil rights but also are pro-military and at home with traditional religious and cultural values. Read More

The Mexican-American tradition in the part of South Texas radiating from San Antonio is anchored in two culturally conservative institutions, the Catholic Church and the United States military. Both are a major presence in San Antonio, just 150 miles north of the border, which for many years had the largest Mexican-American population of any American city and where Spanish has long been widely spoken. The church in San Antonio was led for years by liberal bishops. They also ran St. Mary’s University, which educated many Hispanic politicians and leaders, including two longtime House Democratic committee chairmen, former Reps. Henry Gonzalez and Kika de la Garza, and Republican Sen. John Cornyn, who graduated from St. Mary’s law school. Just as visible a presence in San Antonio are the Army and Air Force, with huge Fort Sam Houston, Lackland Air Force Base, and the Randolph Air Force Base, all in or near the city limits. Mexican-Americans have long volunteered for military service in numbers higher than members of most other ethnic groups, and for many years, Mexican-Americans in San Antonio worked in civilian jobs for the military service. San Antonio’s Mexican-American community also has produced many politicians who are liberal on economic issues and civil rights but also are pro-military and at home with traditional religious and cultural values.

Fifty or so miles west of San Antonio, the hills flatten out and become the parched uplands of West Texas. This is a borderland, just north of Mexico, where people are concentrated in tiny hamlets amid the empty ranchlands. Most residents are Latino. Once, Indians were the threat on this frontier. Now the challenge is a lack of water. The aquifers of West Texas are being drained, and state law still allows landowners to pump out as much water as they want. The Rio Grande, dried out by a dam in New Mexico, gets most of its water from the Rio Conchos in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The mountains of Big Bend National Park rise above the Rio Grande, where in the clean air you can find dozens of species of birds and can see for 180 miles. Eccentrics have built an art colony in Marfa and stage a chili cook-off in Terlingua. Texas’s frontier in many ways is thriving. Housing is cheap; Reeves County in 2009 had the nation’s lowest median home values at $29,400. Huge wind farms have flowered along the interstate in Crockett County.

The 23rd Congressional District of Texas is geographically the largest in the state, stretching from the west side of San Antonio to the outskirts of El Paso, from Eagle Pass and Maverick County to the New Mexico border. About 60% of its population is in Bexar County, which includes many Latinos. The district’s Latino population is 66%. Many of the border counties are Democratic. The district voted 57% for Republican President George W. Bush in 2004, and four years later, Democrat Barack Obama won the district 51%-48%.

In 2008, Texas was, for the first time in 20 years, a pivotal state in presidential politics, more so in the two parties’ nomination contests than in the general election, although the result there was notably closer than many people had anticipated. In 1988, Texas’ presidential primary was moved to March, for Super Tuesday. Then, Democrats dominated the legislature and far more Texans chose to vote in the Democratic than in the Republican primary. That year, 1.7 million voted in the Democratic primary, and Michael Dukakis led with 33% of the vote, Jesse Jackson got 25%, ahead of Al Gore, running as a Southern moderate, with 20%. Dukakis had support from urban liberals and Hispanics, Jackson from African-Americans, Gore from the dwindling number of rural and small-town yellow dog Democrats. Just over 1 million votes were cast on the Republican side, most of them for Texas’ own George H.W. Bush. In 1992, turnout was lower in both parties’ primaries and in 1996, 2000 and 2004, both parties’ nominations were determined by the time Texas voted. Read More

In 2008, Texas was, for the first time in 20 years, a pivotal state in presidential politics, more so in the two parties’ nomination contests than in the general election, although the result there was notably closer than many people had anticipated. In 1988, Texas’ presidential primary was moved to March, for Super Tuesday. Then, Democrats dominated the legislature and far more Texans chose to vote in the Democratic than in the Republican primary. That year, 1.7 million voted in the Democratic primary, and Michael Dukakis led with 33% of the vote, Jesse Jackson got 25%, ahead of Al Gore, running as a Southern moderate, with 20%. Dukakis had support from urban liberals and Hispanics, Jackson from African-Americans, Gore from the dwindling number of rural and small-town yellow dog Democrats. Just over 1 million votes were cast on the Republican side, most of them for Texas’ own George H.W. Bush. In 1992, turnout was lower in both parties’ primaries and in 1996, 2000 and 2004, both parties’ nominations were determined by the time Texas voted.

Not so in 2008. After Barack Obama in February won 14 straight Democratic primaries and 11 caucuses, Texas and Ohio were must-wins for Hillary Rodham Clinton on March 4. On the Republican side, Mike Huckabee was still campaigning against John McCain. So Texas got a lot more attention than it would have if the legislature had chosen to set the primary for Super Tuesday, Feb. 5. Obama and Clinton debated and campaigned hard in Texas. Democratic turnout was nearly 2.9 million, more than triple the 839,000 who voted in 2004 and 70% above the peak in 1988. The primary was a closer contest than Ohio’s. Clinton won by just 51%-47%. As in other states, Clinton carried women, older voters, downscale and rural whites and Latinos by wide margins. Obama carried men, younger voters, upscale and urban whites and blacks by wide margins. Clinton won 61% to 70% of the vote in San Antonio and border state Senate districts. (Texas Democrats elect delegates by state Senate districts.) Obama won 73% in heavily African-American state Senate districts in Houston and Dallas. Rural districts, except for one which includes exurban Austin’s Williamson County voted for Clinton. Obama carried metro Dallas with 56%, metro Houston with 55%, and metro Austin with 60%. Clinton carried 18 Senate districts to Obama’s 13, but Obama won more delegates overall because one-third of them were selected in caucuses held on primary night and more Obama voters took the trouble to show up.

Turnout on the Republican side was much lower, 1.3 million, less than half the Democratic turnout and only slightly above the 1.1 million Republicans who voted in the not seriously contested primary in 2000. McCain beat Huckabee, 51%-38%. Huckabee carried only one U.S. House district, the 4th, which includes Texarkana, right on the border with his native Arkansas. Half the primary voters were white evangelical Protestants, and Huckabee won more than 40% of the vote in the northern more, Baptist half of the state, including the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. He won less than 40% in most parts of the southern half of the state. McCain’s biggest majorities were in the border areas and in the most upscale districts in Houston and Dallas.

In general elections, Texas has not voted Democratic since 1976, when it narrowly backed Jimmy Carter. The best the Democratic ticket has done here since then was 43% in 1988, when Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen was Michael Dukakis’ running mate, and 44% in 1996, when Texan Ross Perot split the opposition to Bill Clinton, and Republican Bob Dole carried the state with 49% of the vote.

In 2008, Obama got 44% of the vote, which left him well behind McCain’s 55%, but not so far behind as to banish Democrats’ hopes they may be competitive for Texas’ 38 electoral votes in 2012. Obama carried the central city counties including Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Austin, something no Democrat has done since Lyndon Johnson swept his home state in 1964. Republicans led in party identification by only 34%-33%, but conservatives outnumbered liberals, 46%-15%. Whites voted 73%-26% for McCain. He also won 83% among white evangelical Protestants and 69% among white voters under 30. African-Americans voted 98%-2% for Obama. Hispanics voted 63%-35% for Obama. Hispanics and upscale white voters were the most likely to have switched from Bush in 2004 to Obama in 2008. As a result, the coalitions supporting each candidate were very different in hue. More than 80% of McCain’s votes were cast by whites. A little more than one-third of Obama voters were whites, with a little less than one-third African-American and about the same share Hispanic.