Santorum's Exit a Blow to Texas' Presidential Primary

by Jay Root
April 10, 2012
12 Comments

Rick Santorum’s withdrawal today from the 2012 presidential contest makes Texas Republicans, once again, all but irrelevant in their party’s nomination process.

The drawn-out nature of the race had given party activists rare hope that this would be the most competitive presidential primary since 1976, when Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford duked it out in a contest that didn’t end until the party’s convention.

But a legal fight this year over redistricting pushed the Texas primary to May 29 from early March.

“Certainly if we had gone in March, we would have a much larger voice ...

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Comments (12)

April 10, 2012 @ 2:45 p.m.

Ron Blancarte via Texas Tribune on Facebook

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4tWZNxnABk
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April 10, 2012 @ 2:58 p.m.

Hal Grieb via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Still Have Texas' own Ron Paul!
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April 10, 2012 @ 3:28 p.m.

Stanley Moore via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Ron Paul? Pennsylvanian. Paul? Haa!! Haaaaa!
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April 10, 2012 @ 3:34 p.m.

Teresa Saldivar via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Good Riddance to vile rubbage!
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April 10, 2012 @ 3:38 p.m.

Michael Tucker via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Well, now they know what it feels like to be a progressive in Texas.
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April 10, 2012 @ 4:10 p.m.

Beverly Voss via Texas Tribune on Facebook

where do they get this stuff , not true. !!!
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April 10, 2012 @ 5:04 p.m.

Joshua Martinez via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Ron Paul all the way to the presidency
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April 10, 2012 @ 5:47 p.m.

Loren White via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Already were irrelevant. Obama 2012! It will give the GOP 4 more years of something to carp about.
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April 10, 2012 @ 6:04 p.m.

Aaron Day via Texas Tribune on Facebook

Hate loses another one but Tolerance is still in the race (Ron Paul 2012)
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April 10, 2012 @ 9:33 p.m.

Samdavis

Be nice to see how energized Democrats are and how many Republicans will not vote for a Mormon candidate.
April 10, 2012 @ 10:04 p.m.

Rudyg43

Not much of a "Good day" as "W" got back on stage, hanging baggage onto Romney's neck. Santorum's exit today makes Romney the anti-climactic champion providing the TEA-GOP-Republican nominee the chance to become the centrist. The extremist TEA party will strive to take Romney back to the right. Judson Phillips boldly declared, “The Tea Party will never rally behind Mitt Romney.” The "Anyone but Romney" crowd have helped splinter the once proud party of Lincoln. The "Ad Salvos" have begun for the November election. Karl Roves' "American Crossroads" and others have been attacking president Obama Through ads from Exxon/Mobil and other giants wanting to keep their subsidies intact. The tax debate will take center-stage along with "Seeking Independents" in November. Having heard that Romney is a velcro candidate, I wondered what has stuck to Romney? He like the tall trees the right height; his wife drives two Cadillac's; his California mansion has elevators for his cars and he like to fire people who do not provide good services. When he released his tax return for 2010, it was disclosed he paid 13.7% on 21 million in income, while the average Joe would pay a higher percentage on $100,000.00 dollars of earned income. The power of control is at the local level and the TEA party have used their tactics to garner more local control in multiple states. States like Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.
April 11, 2012 @ 10:04 p.m.

Cheryl Gonzales

No primary is irrelevant. No matter when a primary occurs, it is most certainly not irrelevant, if there is an accompanying national convention. The founding fathers had the foresight to institute the primary system so that the candidates could easily navigate a state small in area such as New Hampshire, and they could test the waters in a state like Iowa. It worked for decades, as there wasn't a whole lot to do in New Hampshire in the winter, so citizens would turn out to see the candidate in person. It is humanly impossible for any candidate to traverse 50 states during January. New Mexico doesn't have its primary until June 3rd. Back in 2003, they jumped on the bandwagon by moving up the date to Feb. 3. The ill effect was that no one was remotely ready to think about presidential candidates, and everyone was caught off base. Now it has been moved back to its original June date and everyone is happier. No one state has the power to decide the presidency. The Republican National Committe has recognized this fact, and penalizes states which insist on moving their primaries up. Each primary is relevant.