Barack Obama now moves on to territory that poses tougher challenges, with greater concentrations of rural, white, working-class voters in Ohio and Wisconsin and a large number of Latino voters in Texas.
Obama’s momentum will count for a lot, but the upcoming contests, on paper at least, are more favorable to Hillary Clinton, giving her a shot to bounce back from a string of defeats..
Even before Tuesday’s results were known, Obama had boarded his chartered campaign plane and headed to the University of Wisconsin for one of his signature rallies.
Obama campaign manager David Plouffe described Clinton as “really like an incumbent” in Wisconsin. Obama has the backing of the governor and has time to campaign there, helping him to win votes, Plouffe said.
Clinton had bolted for the Don Haskins arena in El Paso, Texas, to court Hispanics, who make up a little more than 20 percent of the electorate in the Lone Star State and have been among her strongest supporters.
In Texas, the Hispanic vote could push Clinton to victory, but party rules could prove to be her undoing. They dictate that the state’s 126 delegates be allocated according to district voter turnout in the 2006 election. That could help Obama win more delegates because black districts recorded higher turnouts than Hispanic districts.
AFeb. 1 Texas poll gave Clinton a 10-point lead, but it showed that Obama had picked up 10 points, including gains among Hispanics.
“Right now Clinton is probably still ahead but the movement might be toward Obama here, as it has been in many other places,” said University of Texas political science professor Bruce Buchanan.
Ohio has historically favored established candidates like Clinton by a small margin.
“If Obama has a chance at carrying Ohio it will be because of the African-American vote and the middle and upwardly mobile white suburban vote in central and southern Ohio,” said Ken Heineman a professor of history at Ohio University-Lancaster.
