Texas DUers: Why don't the BIG cities in Texas overwhelm rural votes?

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

The SurveyUSA recent numbers on prez approval (Texas at 42 approve, 54 disapprove) are very encouraging but I have a question about Texas.

In Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia are the large population and blue voters. We essentially overwhelm the rural "T" of our state on presidential elections.

Now, Texas has very large cities. Urban areas and surrounding suburbs usually vote blue. How come the urban votes don't trump the rural votes in Texas?

Just curious.
:shrug:

[efhmc]

1. Ahem, do you remember Tom Delay's dividing up our districts?

Therein lays your answer.

[0007]

4. ...that's part of the problem and the other part are the local

newspapers run all the right wing propaganda. The "Midland Reporter" in Midland Texas is a good example. Plus the moral issues run high in the local churches. (Gay marriage & abortions.)

[efhmc]

7. Honey, you are not telling me anything. I am a precinct chair who will

not subscribe to the right wing rag they call a paper here in my small town. Small town Texas is a freaky place.

[ozarkvet]

9. Pulled over in Odessa, TX

On my way to El Paso.

Not an overly friendly place.

[0007]

10. You got that right! But in reality Odessa is more to the left than

Midland.

[djeseru]

2. Because those in the urban areas don't vote?

:shrug:

I just woke up a few years ago myself, and there's a lot of other things to pay attention to these days, you know, like the missing blonde woman...

I've noticed that the rural areas here are more consistent when it comes to voting.

[GrumpyGreg]

3. Texas urban isn't the same as Northeast urban IMHO.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

5. That's probably true but most analysis showed a real urban-rural divide

And I just wondered how that played out in Texas. I believe Houston passed Philadelphia in population. I know how it works in PA with the cities/surrounding suburbs voting Dem and, thankfully, trouncing the rural votes in the center of my state.

[ozarkvet]

8. Agreed

Not a native Texan, and in El Paso (which is closer to San Diego than Houston, I believe), so I don't have a good feel.

But the cities seem pretty conservative, too.

Look at a county vote map of Texas --- pretty much Travis County, El Paso (I think), and a couple of south border counties voted for Bush.

Even the Democrats (Travis County excepted) aren't really Democrats; more like Arlen Specter.

[Celeborn Skywalker]

20. I really doubt El Paso went for Bush.

I wouldn't swear by it, but I'd say Kerry probably won the city by at least 10 points if not more.

Edit: Kerry won El Paso 56% to Bush's 43%. Here's the El Paso County results http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004//pages/results/states/TX/P/00/county.002.html#48141

[ozarkvet]

22. Sorry, unclear post

I meant "BUT FOR El Paso, Travis, and a couple of South/Border counties," the whole state went for Bush.

Dangers of surfing the net on a handheld in class.

[zbdent]

6. Wonder if there's some "approved" voter fraud going on there . . .

Suburbanites who are registered in multiple communities - just happen to be along their commute . . .

You know, vote in their real home district before heading off to work, vote in their "home district" (using their office address) all the while when the RW boss looks the other way, then stops off at their "home address" (using the fictional, phantom address) to vote . . .

[bornskeptic]

11. From 2004 exit poll for Texas

VOTE BY SIZE OF COMMUNITY

Big Cities (31%) Bush 60% Kerry 40%

Smaller Cities (29%) Bush 67% Kerry 32%

Suburbs (26%) Bush 56% Kerry 43%

Small Towns (8%) Bush 59% Kerry 41%

Rural (6%) Bush 74% Kerry 26%

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/TX/P/00/epolls.0.html

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

14. Very enlightening! Compare to PA:

Some very interesting differences show up between Texas and Pennsylvania Thanks for the link.


PA numbers.....

VOTE BY SIZE OF COMMUNITY TOTAL 2004

Big Cities (12%) Bush 19% Kerry 81%

Smaller Cities (6%) Bush 28% Kerry 72%

Suburbs (65%) Bush 52% Kerry 47%

Small Towns (8%) Bush 48% Kerry 52%

Rural (9%) Bush 73% Kerry 27%


VOTE BY REGION
TOTAL 2004

Philadelphia (12%) BUSH 19% KERRY 81%

Phila. Suburbs (21%) BUSH 46% KERRY 54%

Northeastern Pa. (14%) BUSH 49% KERRY 51%

Pittsburgh Area (23%) BUSH 46% KERRY 53%

Central/North Tier (30%) BUSH 63% KERRY 37%

[Sooner75]

18. getting Texas into play

As indicated, Texas cities vote Republican, but things are changing. Texas' Anglo population is about to fall below 50% which should be bad news for the GOP. In 2004, the black vote was heavily mobilized and as a result Dallas County went 49% for Kerry.

If the nominee is ever someone more warm and folksy than the likes of Gore and Kerry (Sorry, guys, there's great men and would have been great presidents, but they weren't able to get Southerners to wsarm up to them.) Since JFK's slender victory in 1960, the Democrats that have gotten elected were all Southerners. They got the Democratic strongholds and made major inroads into the conservative South. I always want people to look at the map of the '92 and '96 presidential elections. Clinton cleaned up in just ALL of the Mississippi Valley states. In '92, he also forced Bush Sr. to spend precious campaign money in Texas to hold it. Bush held Texas, but lost the overall campaign.

If you wanna win, make the other guys spend lots of time and money defending their turf. Put Sun Tzu's "Art of War" back into the playbook.

[tanyev]

12. I disagree that surrounding suburbs usually vote blue.

The suburbs where I am are very wealthy and very red. The biggest concentration of blue voters are only in the most urban areas.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

15. Depends on the state, apparently. I've learned a lot more about Tx

And the exit poll breakdowns posted above really helped me to see the differences between the Northeast, specifically PA, and Texas.

I was just very curious why the large cities in Tx couldn't overwhelm the rural areas...now I think I understand it better.

[TexasLawyer]

13. I believe that there was massive election fraud

in Harris county (Houston), and possibly some other Texas counties that use the e-slate DRE voting system.

There are many written accounts of Harris County voters trying to vote straight-party Democratic and having their ballot mysteriously register straight-party Republican or show no vote at all for president. Some people noticed before they pushed the "cast ballot" button, and reportedly had a heck of a time fixing their ballots to properly reflect their intent (my next-door neighbor, for one). I'm betting that for everyone who noticed a problem there are many, many,m any who didn't.

Harris County is the third most populous county in the U.S., and has more voting-aged citizens than at least a dozen states. Bush may have carried Harris County anyway without the manipulation of the results, but I think that this was done (a) because it was so damn easy to do and get away with, and (b) to pad the alleged Bush "mandate" and expand his popular vote.

[Selatius]

16. Suburbs are often mixed in political make-up, often voting red, not blue

The suburbs should be considered different territory than truly urban areas. It's where you find all the incredibly bad urban sprawl with no real direction, the mcmansions, and the problem of cities that are built around the automobile, not the pedestrian. Nevermind the fact that mass transit for the poorest is almost non-existent in many cases.

[w8liftinglady]

17. Texas does a poor job of "getting out the vote" in inner city areas

I live in the dallas metroplex,and I would bet that if a more concerted effort were made to help people get to polling places,there would have been a more favorable turnout.Arlington does not have a mass transit system.The small towns have CHURCHES transporting people to the polling places...

[Carmerian]

21. Arlington is missing mass transit for a reason

This is OT, but the idea has come up before, and the shitty council shot it down. They quite openly said that they didn't want it because poor people tend to use transit, and implied that *gasp* poor people might move to Arlington if the city had transit. What do you expect, though? This is the crooked institution that was in cahoots with Bush to build his stadium in the early 90's.

Arlington was once a pretty, wooded town. Now it's a hideous concrete jungle thanks to years of Republican desecration.

[Jane Austin]

19. I'm not sure what it indicates, but I did more than glance at the results

of the small, rural towns east of Austin after the November elections.

The precincts in the very small towns of Elgin, Bastrop, Taylor and, I believe Manor, (5000-10,000)went for Kerry.

The countryside between the towns went for bush. They are dotted with subdivisions of Austin commuters that have popped up almost overnight.

(Don't get me started on ticky-tacky "Presidential Acres" with it's entry street named George Bush Blvd. It's all I can do to drive by it without losing my breakfast.)

The towns are old farm-based communities, chock full of churches and school spirit.

It was a pleasant surprise to me to see that the town precincts went blue.

[NoPasaran]

23. The real split is Urban/Suburban/Rural

As some previous posters have noted, many of the cities theselves are blue, but they are surrounded by red suburbs. And over the years Texas Democrats have done a lousy job of actually getting their voters to the polls.