The Texas Rules

While some states have moved their presidential primary up a month or more for 2008, Texas has moved hardly at all. It has inched forward to the first Tuesday in March, as opposed to the second Tuesday of the month, the date it held in 2004. That makes Texas and Ohio the major players on the last big day of the 2008 primary season, March 4, when a total of four states are scheduled to vote. Texas Republicans choose their delegates to reflect the results of the primary. Texas Democrats use the primary results to allocate 126 delegates at the district level and employ a separate caucus process to elect 67 delegates based on the presidential preferences of delegates to the state convention held three months later.

Texas does not have party registration. As of November 2006, the state had 13,074,279 registered voters that could participate in either party's nominating process. But a voter must cast a vote in the Democratic primary to be eligible to take part in the party's precinct conventions held the evening of March 4. The precinct conventions elect delegates to the county or state senate district conventions March 29, which in turn elect delegates to the Democratic state convention June 6-7.