The Big News Out of the Texas Primary: Women

The big news from the Texas primary Tuesday was on the Democratic side, and it's a very simple one: Women. Female candidates outperformed expectations at the ballot box and outperformed their fundraising hauls. As I write this the votes are still being counted, and I'll include a caveat that this is just based on a look at the raw votes, not anything more sophisticated. But there are strong signs that a lot of Democratic voters are looking for a woman to support this year.

Take my home Congressional district, Texas' 21st, which stretches from San Antonio to Austin. Republican Lamar Smith is retiring, and four Democrats ran. One, Joseph Kopser, had the solid backing of many Washington Democrats and seemed to have support from party actors in the state. He raised the most money, by far. But he's finishing second against seemingly obscure candidate Mary Wilson, who raised the least money and yet is in the lead as I write this with 31 percent of the vote to Kopser's 29. We received at least 9 big glossy pieces promoting Kopser, two each from the other two men in the contest, and just a small postcard from Wilson. Kopser also had someone knock on our door, and place two get-out-the-vote calls to our home. Kopser and the other two men each had some impressive endorsements; Wilson doesn't appear to have had any. Either she ran an amazing low-cost stealth campaign, or Democrats in the district simply liked the sound of "Mary" as they scanned the ballot.