What a close statewide race looks like in Texas now

[RBH]

The 2006 race for the Texas Supreme Court, between Don Willett (R) and Bill Moody (D)

Willett won 51/45



Counties where Moody topped his statewide average and lost: Baylor, Bowie, Castro, Delta, Dickens, Fannin, Fort Bend(!), Goliad, Grimes, Hall, Harris(!), Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jones, Kinney, Lamar, Lee, Limestone, Lynn, Matagorda, McLennan, Nolan, San Jacinto, Uvalde

Counties where Willett ran behind his statewide average and won: Baylor, Bowie, Castro, Delta, Dickens, Fannin, Goliad, Grimes, Hall, Harris, Jasper, Jeff Davis, Jones, Kinney, Lamar, Lee, Liberty, Matagorda, Nolan, San Jacinto, Uvalde, Wilson

So, perhaps we have a better idea of the sort of map needed for a Democrat to be competitive in Texas.

[jimrtex]

The 2006 race for the Texas Supreme Court, between Don Willett (R) and Bill Moody (D)

Willett won 51/45

So, perhaps we have a better idea of the sort of map needed for a Democrat to be competitive in Texas.

You would probably find the map on MapQuest.

Moody ran an interesting campaign.  He was a district judge in El Paso, and walked across Texas (El Paso is closer to Los Angeles, CA than Orange, TX on the Louisiana border).  So reporters would go out an interview him while he was on the road, and then get quotes from Texans that he stopped to talk to.

Moody may also have benefited from straight ticket voters, and the 4-way governor race.  Some Republicans may have not voted a straight ticket, and then not bothered with the judicial races (Democrats only ran candidates for 2 of the 8 statewide judicial races), while straight ticket Democrats would have voted for Moody even if they didn't know it.

Willett had been appointed to his seat Governor Perry, and narrowly beat a challenger Steve Smith, in the primary.  In 2002, Smith had knocked off another appointee of Perry (54:46), and in turn had been defeated by a candidate backed by Perry in the 2004 primary (53:47).  The 2004 primary was (50.5:49.5, Willett over Smith).  There may have been some Smith supporters who didn't vote for Willett.