Texas two-step results still coming in
AUSTIN, Texas — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama scrambled to secure more Texas delegates Saturday as the state pushed to settle the outcome of the March 4 caucuses.
Obama led Clinton 56 percent to 44 percent in results reported from close to half the conventions held across the state — the latest stage of a process that prompted frustration and challenges from supporters of both candidates.
Texas Democrats hold both a presidential primary and caucuses. Clinton won the March 4 primary with 51 percent to Obama’s 47 percent, earning her 65 national convention delegates to Obama’s 61.
The state’s caucuses began immediately after polls closed primary night and quickly devolved into chaos in many parts of the state after an unprecedented turnout of more than 1 million Democrats. Back then, an incomplete and unofficial count by the Texas Democratic Party showed Obama leading Clinton in caucuses 56 percent to 44 percent.
A total of 67 national convention delegates are ultimately at stake in the Texas caucuses, and party conventions throughout the state Saturday were the latest effort to divvy up the prize.
Clinton vows to remain in race
NEW ALBANY, Ind. — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton sought Saturday to put to rest any notion that she will drop out of the presidential race, pledging in an interview with The Washington Post to not only compete in all the remaining primaries but also continue until there is a resolution of the disqualified results in Florida and Michigan.
A day after Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean urged the candidates to end the race by July 1, Clinton declared that she will take her campaign all the way to the Aug. 25-28 convention if necessary.
“I know there are some people who want to shut this down, and I think they are wrong,” Clinton said in an interview during a campaign stop Saturday. “I have no intention of stopping until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan. And if we don’t resolve it, we’ll resolve it at the convention.”
No Dem endorsement from John Edwards
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — Former Sen. John Edwards, in his first public speech since dropping his White House bid two months ago, praised Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on Saturday but declined to endorse either candidate.
“I have a very high opinion of both of them,” Edwards said at the Young Democrats of North Carolina convention. “We would be blessed as a nation to have either one of them as president.”
