Where Texas Democrats can improve

The Latino vote - look at how poorly Bell and Radnofsky reached Latinos. This is from surveys at Latino majority precincts.

ONLY TEXAS VOTERS: Whom did you vote for in the Gubernatorial race?

Chris Bell 39.5%
“Kinky” Friedman 14.3%
Rick Perry 13.9%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn 28.6%
Other Candidate 3.6%

ONLY TEXAS VOTERS: Whom did you vote for in your Senate race?

Kay Bailey Hutchison 53.7%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky 35.6%
Other Candidate 10.7%

I am a bit confused as I am not sure how that differs from their final exit poll document which has different numbers.

1. Q: Whom did you vote for in your Senate race?

Kay Bailey Hutchison: 43.9%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky: 40.6%
Other Candidate: 10.6%
Did not vote: 5.0%

2. Q: Whom did you vote for in the Gubernatorial race?

Chris Bell: 42.8%
“Kinky” Friedman: 16.1%
Rick Perry: 24.4%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 11.9%
Other Candidate: 2.6%
Did not vote: 2.2%

The fact that the top Democratic candidates could not crack 50% in Latino voting to me shows no effort being made to reach those voters.

The CNN exit polls may be more accurate. The CNN exit polls show Radnofsky with only 67% of the African-American vote and 54% of the Latino vote. It has Chris Bell with 63% of the African American and 41% of the Latino vote.

Interesting that Bell did win the liberal and moderate vote but Perry had a 64% landslide in the 42% conservative Texas vote. Bell needed another candidate to the right of Perry (Just what we need, another candidate.) also interesting is that more Strayhorn voters would have stayed home than Kinky voters if their candidate was not running.

All the polls show little minority outreach by the top Texas Democratic candidates. That can and must improve for the Texas Democratic party to start winning state wide elections.

If you do a little calculation, 42/89, this exit poll does show that Bell would have received 47% of the vote if the choice was limited to him and Perry.

Tags: Texas, exit polls,