Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

2004 United States presidential election in Texas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2004 United States presidential election in Texas
Remove ads

The 2004 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. State voters chose 34 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

Quick facts Turnout, Nominee ...

Texas was won by incumbent Republican President George W. Bush by a margin of 22.87%. Prior to the election, all 12 major U.S. news organizations expected Texas to vote for Bush, considering it to be a safe red state. Texas has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee since 1976, and has been a Republican stronghold since the 1980s. A former governor of the state, Bush's performance stands as a high-water mark for Republican presidential candidates in Texas, and remains the last time that a Republican has won more than 60% of the state's vote, or that a Democrat has won less than 40%. The 1,067,968 ballots cast in Harris County also marked the first time that any Texas county would cast more than one million votes. This is also the most recent election in which the Republican candidate would win Tarrant County with at least 60% of the vote.

Bush, who made historic gains with Latino voters in 2004,[2] drew even with Kerry among Texan Latinos, winning 49% to Kerry's 50%.[3] In 2008 there would be a shift in many of the urban counties Bush carried in this election toward Democratic candidate Barack Obama, though the state would still be won by his Republican opponent, John McCain.

Remove ads

Primaries

Campaign

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[4]

More information Source, Ranking ...

Polling

Bush won every single pre-election poll, and won each with at least 55% of the vote and a double-digit margin of victory. The final three polls averaged Bush leading 59% to 37%.[5]

Fundraising

Bush raised $23,776,943.[6] Kerry raised $5,554,831.[7]

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.[8][9]

Remove ads

Analysis

Summarize
Perspective

Texas, located in the South, has become a consistently Republican state at all levels. Economically and racially diverse, Texas includes a huge swath of the Bible Belt where many voters, especially those in rural Texas, identify as born-again or evangelical Christians and therefore tend to vote Republican due to the party's opposition to abortion. Although once part of the Solid South, the last time Texas voted for a Democratic presidential nominee was Jimmy Carter in 1976.[10] George Bush achieved his party's best result in Texas since Ronald Reagan's second landslide in 1984.

President Bush carried 236 of the state's 254 counties, improving on his performance from 2000. East Texas, historically the most Democratic region in the state, solidified its support for the Republican Party with only Jefferson County, home to Beaumont, voting for John Kerry. South Texas, while still voting heavily for Senator Kerry, swung towards Bush as well. Despite Bush's increased margin in the state compared to 2000, Kerry made major inroads in the state's suburban areas, especially in Metro Houston, the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, and the Austin area. Kerry narrowed Bush's 2000 margins in Collin, Dallas, Denton, Fort Bend, Harris, Hays, Travis, and Williamson Counties. Out of those, however, only Travis County, home to Austin, flipped into the Democratic column, in part due to the city's strong liberal leanings and opposition to the Iraq War. Bush had won a plurality in the county in 2000 in part due to the Green Party's Ralph Nader winning 11% of the county's vote. Although Bush carried Dallas County by a narrow margin of 50% to Kerry's 49%, the city of Dallas proper voted heavily for Kerry, giving him 57% of the vote.

Bush is the last Republican to win any of the following counties in a presidential election: Bexar (home of San Antonio), Dallas (home of Dallas), and Harris (home of Houston). Frio, Kleberg, Reeves, Val Verde counties would not vote Republican again until 2020. Cameron and Culberson counties would not vote Republican again until 2024.

Remove ads

Results

Summarize
Perspective
More information Party, Candidate ...

By county

More information County, George W. Bush Republican ...
Thumb
County Flips:

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Bush won 25 of 32 congressional districts, including four held by Democrats.[13]

Remove ads

Electors

Summarize
Perspective

Technically the voters of Texas cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Texas is allocated 34 electors because it has 32 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 34 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 34 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 34 were pledged to Bush/Cheney:[14][15]

  1. Royce Hayes
  2. Tom Cotter
  3. Jay Pierce
  4. Marjorie Chandler
  5. Lance Lenz
  6. Barbara Grusendorf
  7. Bill Borden
  8. Jim Wiggins
  9. Anna Rice
  10. Jan Galbraith
  11. Sue Brannon
  12. Cheryl Surber
  13. Mike Ussery
  14. Sid Young
  15. Frank Morris
  16. Roger O'Dell
  17. Christopher DeCluitt
  18. Martha Greenlaw
  19. Marcus Anderson
  20. Mike Provost
  21. Bennie Bock
  22. Kathy Haigler
  23. Kim Hesley
  24. Peter Wrench
  25. Morris Woods
  26. Rhealyn Samuelson
  27. Nancy Stevens
  28. Loyce McCarter
  29. Larry Bowles
  30. Dan Mosher
  31. Glenn Warren
  32. Kristina Kiik
  33. Susan Weddington
  34. Charles Burchett
Remove ads

See also

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads