DeLay's Primary Victory

Several news organizations have described Tom DeLay's victory with 62 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Republican primary as some sort of triumph or vindication. But no one really expected DeLay to lose a Republican primary. In addition, how does DeLay's performance stack up against other Republican incumbents? Most Texas Republican House members faced no primary opposition. In addition to DeLay, only two other Republican incumbents, Sam Johnson and Ron Paul, managed to draw primary challengers. But both of them did significantly better than DeLay. Johnson got 85 percent of the vote and Paul got 78 percent. I also went back to the 2004 results. In that year, twelve of sixteen Republican faced no primary opposition, including Tom DeLay. Of those facing primaries, the lowest percentage of the vote was 70 percent. That DeLay only managed 62 percent of the vote in a Republican primary is hardly a sign of electoral strength.