Growing Anti-Washington Mood Among Voters Helps Rick Perry Win Texas Primary
Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, March 2, 2010, 11:00 PM
Governor Perry capitalizes on anti-Obama sentiment in Lone Star State.
(Al.com)
Governor Rick Perry won the Texas Republican primary tonight. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison conceded the election at 9:30. Truther-Tea Party candidate Debra Medina took about one-fifth of the vote.
The AP reported:
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison conceded the Republican nomination for Texas governor to Gov. Rick Perry on Tuesday following a heated primary battle that highlighted the growing anti-Washington mood among voters in midterm elections.
Hutchison was once seen as the candidate who could deliver Perry’s first election loss in a lifetime of public office, but the governor, a darling of the social conservatives, forcefully painted the senator as too entrenched in Washington politics.
Speaking at his election night party in Driftwood after Hutchison conceded, Perry said he would unite a fractured Texas Republican Party in the November general election and stressed that Washington politics had no place in the Lone Star state.
“From Driftwood, Texas, to Washington, D.C. we are sending you a message tonight: Stop messing with Texas!” Perry said.
Perry, Texas’ longest-serving governor, had 51 percent of the vote compared to Hutchinson’s 31 percent, with nearly three-fourths of precincts reporting Tuesday night. About one in five voters cast ballots for a third candidate, Debra Medina, a GOP party activist who was backed by some in the state’s tea party movement.
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Published May 24, 2012 at 8:46 pm - 67 Comments
Ron commented:
Rick Perry is not “a darling of the social conservatives.” He is beloved by FISCAL conservatives because, along with a fiscally conservative legislature, he kept Texas from going down the tubes like Arnold’s state.
Opus #6 commented:
Congrats to Texas. I find myself in an anti-Washington mood as well…
jonyjoe101 commented:
I guess the teaparty movement don’t know what they are doing. I lump the teaparty movement with rush limbaugh,bill o’reilly,hannity and glen beck. They talk tough but there views are more liberal than even Obama. Of course one thing they all have in common is they all certified Obama a US citizen.
I’m surprise Medina did as good as she did. Maybe next time she needs to lie about her true agenda. If she can’t lie she will never get elected to office.
Dell commented:
Interesting to analyze the primary results. From where I sit, it was KBH’s primary to lose and that’s exactly what she did. Perry pegged her as just another one of the Beltway insiders and she couldn’t shake that label. Her vote for Obama’s stimulus bill had Texans shaking their heads, and her pro-choice position didn’t help, either.
Medina picked up a lot of support from folks who simply refused to vote for Perry or Hutchison – believing BOTH to be an integral part of the problem the State and Country is currently experiencing.
Perry has his detractors, even within his own party, but come November 90% of those detractors will hold their noses and vote for Perry, rather than even think about voting for a Democrat. Texas is still very much a Republican State and this isn’t going to be a good year to be running as a Democrat anywhere.
Unless a few million illegal immigrants vote (and Texas has scads of them), Perry should beat Houston Democrat Bill White by three or four percentage points.
Now, it’s Perry’s election to lose….
Rock commented:
What are you all talking about? Perry is the man. Kay Bailey voted for the stimulus – bad move. All the press about this Funky Called Medina chick – who exposed herself as a truther three weeks ago – amazing that even the Financial Times thought she had a chance.
And Perry is a Ag (Texas A&M). No contest.
newton commented:
The winner in the TX primary tonight… Sarah Palin.
(Hey! Her instincts were proven correct here!)
John commented:
The Texas State Network (CBS owned, for what that’s worth) in their early returns tonight, threw in the tidbit that thanks to White running this was seen as the best chance the Democrats had in years of winning the governorship. While it’s true that they’ve got a more credible candidate this time than at any time since Bush defeated Richards in 1994, it’s hard to see how White, carrying the Democratic label, can run away from Washington in November when the anti-D.C. sentiment was enough to keep Hutchison from even making the runoff tonight.
Dell commented:
As Ron’s comment (#2) points out; Texas is in much better financial condition than States like California and Perry will get credit for that, as Governor. And John (#9), you’re absolutely right.
Unless one of the candidates screws up royally, it will be up to the voter turnout (and it should be huge, given the political climate on the national level) and Independents to decide. That fact does not bode well for any Democrat.
You can certainly expect Perry to tie White to Obama right out of the chute.
NuckingFutz commented:
paul won dist 14 yet again proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that not all my fellow Texicans have an IQ higher than a rock!
Grandpa looney tunes rides again………..
Jo commented:
Way to go!
Rob commented:
Perry is the strongest the GOP has and if Perry had not won the nomination, I think White would have had a better chance. If Gov. Perry keeps talking states rights and together with the Texas AG throw more cold water on Washington mandates, he’ll quickly become the darling of the anti-Washington mood of our State and the greater south AND give a great boost to anti-big-government folks everywhere. He’s got some issues, but he’s right on most of them, and like several have said, he gets the credit for Texas being in good stead in these times….
Freedom4America commented:
What is wrong with you Texas? You so-called Republicans renominated a Neocon that is taking away your liberties.
Steals your fellow Texans lands via eminent domain to build a highway system owned by Spanish company and forces your young girls to get Gardasil Vaccines.
At least there was one district in Texas that had some brains. District 14 is the smartest and most Patriotic District in Texas because they voted overwhelmingly, over 80%, to renominate Dr. Ron Paul as their Republican nominee for House of Representatives. The only True Conservative that was running.
For Liberty For All,
Freedom4America
Dr. Ron Paul/Dr. Rand Paul 2012
“ONLY Doctors WILL HEAL America”
Male Silverback commented:
Dell, as a citizen of San Antonio and a constiuent of Dem Senator Ciro Rodriguez, I can attest to the heavy latino influence on the vote in my area of operations. The latino community, who by the way, just elected another Dem mayor.
I’m gonna be watching out for any furtive behavior leading up to November. Not that I can do too much but I will not go down the Acorn road without a fight.
eaglewingz08 commented:
Funny how I never read how the dem party is ‘fractured’ even though they had supermajorities in Congress and the President was the same party and couldn’t pass their major ticket items in more than a year in office. The Texas rep party isn’t fractured, it is healthily determining whether it wants to be RINO or Conservative and has chosen the conservative path. The party will rally around its fine gubernatorial candidate who will sweep to reelection this fall.
Andreas K. commented:
Don’t mess with Texas.
A lot of people tried it, all of them failed.
d_fitz commented:
Ronulans are one-nutty-bunch.
Dell commented:
It’s a free country, so you can support Ron Paul – or anyone you choose – but Ron Paul has gone as high as he’ll ever go, politically. The ad hominem
attacks do nothing to advance his agenda. Paul has a couple of good ideas and several very bad ones.
noislamocommie commented:
I refuse to vote for Perry. Zero on the border,mandatory vaccinations for Pharma connections and the largest attempted land grab in history. I will get a sound permit and bullhorn my ass off at the neoprogs voting for White. I will sit it out.
retire05 commented:
noislamcommie, I have to wonder just how involved you are in Texas politics, or Texas issues, for that matter.
While I disagreed with Perry’s decision on Gardasil, he wasn’t saying anything that most of the doctors were telling parents, and we have a legislation that could over ride that decision. And to the TTC, certainly you must admit that I-35 between Dallas and the border is one of the most dangerous interstates in our nation and something should be done about it. Again, our legislature took care of that problem with it’s new eminant domain laws.
As to the border, Perry put the Texas Rangers, along with the TxNG on the border. How much do you expect a governor to pick up the responsibilities of the federal government?
Medina claimed Tea Party support, but I know for a fact she was not endorsed by the Austin Tea Party Patriots, and I don’t think any of the Tea Party local groups endorsed her. She might have had individual Tea Partier support, but not the organizations them selves.
John commented:
Perry does an excellent job in knowing which way the wind blows. He tacked towards the left after the ’06 election with the Trans-Texas corridor and vaccination moves, but then quickly shifted back to the right even before the ’08 election due to both the negative feedback (outrage) those moves got and the knowledge they Kay Bailey was planning to run against him and he couldn’t win if he let her get to his right in the primary.
Given the current mood of the country and the Texas electorate in particular, I doubt there’s any chance that a re-elected Rick Perry is going to move back to the left in 2011, since it’s doubtful the hostility towards the actions of the left in Washington are going to die down any time soon. On the other hand, go out into the middle part of this decade, or try to imagine a President Perry sometime later this decade facing polls showing independents shifting back to the left, and I wouldn’t be shocked at another wind-shift policy change like he tried in 2007.
Dell commented:
retire05
March 3rd, 2010 | 8:49 am | #25
As a Texas voter, I read a lot of common sense in your comment. Perry isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. However, he isn’t an “islamcommie”, either. Texas corrected the Perry errors via the legislative process and damage that might have been done was avoided.
Your comment, re: I-35 is 100% spot on. For thirty miles (at least!) North and South of Dallas and Fort Worth, 35 is little more than a demolition derby on a twice daily basis. 75, 114, the Dallas North Tollway, 360 LBJ and 121 are pretty much the same way…and getting worse by the day. The bedroom communities in the Metroplex are growing twice as fast as the highways that “serve” the DFW area.
thetimman commented:
Rick “Gardisil” Perry. Repcons win again.
czekmark commented:
Jim, you’re dead wrong that Perrys victory was largely based on anti-Obama sentiment. Perry won on his own appeal as he has held Texas outside the reach of the beltway loonies who are trying to bankrupt the nation. For many of us Texans this was not the time to switch governors to the untried (Hutchison) and unknown (Medina).
Yeah, he’ll bowl over White in November.
Kathy from Kansas commented:
I have no fondness for Rick Perry–but I’m glad he won because of the message it sends. When you combine his 51% with the 17% won by the libertarian Debra Medina, you see that a HUGE majority of Texans voted for Tea Party-type values. And the true Tea Party sympathy may be even higher, since some folks voted for Kay just because she’s a nicer person than Perry even if she’s not as good on some of our issues.
I hope that Perry will take this as a mandate to REALLY, REALLY STAND UP for the 10th Amendment. Hell, I hope he leads the movement for Texas to SECEDE. (No, I don’t really want to see it secede—but I think that a credible threat of it could do a LOT of good.)
S. Wolf commented:
Hutchison voted for ACORN funding. Perry is the most like Sam Houston..
quote From Sam Houston before the battle of San Jacinto…
“We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid: none is at hand. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father’s name.”
on Texas…
“Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”
aprilnovember811 commented:
I want to move to Texas. I was hoping they would secede from the Union, I would definately go then. They had tort reform in Texas, and I hear doctors are flocking there. God Bless Texas!
AuntieMadder commented:
I like Perry and look forward to voting for him. He had the cojones to publicly speak the word “secession” publicly, which made me so proud I had to send him a letter telling him so. He was also one of the first state governors this year to sign a state bill reaffirming or acknowledging the states rights protection under the 10th amendment to the Constitution.
Perry’s not perfect but I can’t imagine that any governor ever could make decisions I agree with or approve of 100% of the time.
AuntieMadder commented:
aprilnovember811
March 3rd, 2010 | 8:29 pm | #34
Well, c’mon down, then. We’ll leave the lights on for you.