HOUSTON — Republican Gov. Rick Perry defeated Democrat Bill White on Tuesday as the long-serving governor easily won an unprecedented third full four-year term.
White’s Concession Speech | Perry, White Prepare For Election Night | What Brought Voters To Polls? | Voters Cast Ballots | Prop One
With 26 percent of precincts reporting, Perry had 57 percent of the vote compared with White’s 41 percent. Perry hammered hard all year on the theme that the Texas economy is better than many states and that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created during his decade in office.
He repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama and national Democrats and tried to link White to them.
A grinning Perry proclaimed at his victory party at a wild game ranch: “Texas has spoken, and we’re on the right track.”
Perry said Texans were “optimistic about the future of our country and they believe Texas is headed in the right direction.”
White made a concession speech at 9 p.m. from the Houston Hilton Americas Hotel.
“Tonight, despite the hard word of so many tens of thousands of Texans, it does not look like we will elect a new governor,” White said. “Your work may have fallen short of a majority needed to have a new vision of leadership for this state in a very difficult election year, but you have created a new coalition of Texans, young and old, remarkably bipartisan, who want our state to move forward.”
The race between Perry and White, the Democrats’ best hope in years to win the Texas’ top office, was long and expensive. Both candidates spent millions of dollars airing television ads and trekking around Texas, visiting rural towns and crowded urban neighborhoods. They hammered each other over alleged wrongdoing in office, the state budget shortfall and what’s going on in Washington, D.C. HOUSTON — Republican Gov. Rick Perry defeated Democrat Bill White on Tuesday as the long-serving governor easily won an unprecedented third full four-year term.
White’s Concession Speech | Perry, White Prepare For Election Night | What Brought Voters To Polls? | Voters Cast Ballots | Prop One
With 26 percent of precincts reporting, Perry had 57 percent of the vote compared with White’s 41 percent. Perry hammered hard all year on the theme that the Texas economy is better than many states and that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created during his decade in office.
He repeatedly criticized President Barack Obama and national Democrats and tried to link White to them.
A grinning Perry proclaimed at his victory party at a wild game ranch: “Texas has spoken, and we’re on the right track.”
Perry said Texans were “optimistic about the future of our country and they believe Texas is headed in the right direction.”
White made a concession speech at 9 p.m. from the Houston Hilton Americas Hotel.
“Tonight, despite the hard word of so many tens of thousands of Texans, it does not look like we will elect a new governor,” White said. “Your work may have fallen short of a majority needed to have a new vision of leadership for this state in a very difficult election year, but you have created a new coalition of Texans, young and old, remarkably bipartisan, who want our state to move forward.”
The race between Perry and White, the Democrats’ best hope in years to win the Texas’ top office, was long and expensive. Both candidates spent millions of dollars airing television ads and trekking around Texas, visiting rural towns and crowded urban neighborhoods. They hammered each other over alleged wrongdoing in office, the state budget shortfall and what’s going on in Washington, D.C.
