Austin @ Large: The Democrats' Core Support

Once again, the primary elections told a tale of two counties: a core of rabid Democrats in Central, East, and Southeast Austin, and a periphery of not-so-rabid Republicans to their north and west. The map shows the degree to which Democratic turnout exceeded GOP turnout in each of Travis Co.'s 261 election precincts; only in the GOP's best boxes (the dark-magenta precincts) did Republican turnout actually equal or exceed that in the Dem primary.

Presumably due to Lloyd Doggett's high-profile fight for his political life, the Democrats' center of gravity lay a bit to the east and south of its normal location, within Doggett's CD 25. In many of the Dems' best boxes (the dark-gray precincts), their turnout exceeded that on the GOP side by more than 20-to-1 (or more; box 138 in St. Johns recorded 162 Dem votes and zero GOP votes). This turnout bulge helped not only Doggett but also Travis Co. Commissioner Ron Davis, who won the Precinct 1 boxes (outlined in black) in CD 25 – primarily in the heart of East Austin – by 30 percentage points, and thus narrowly avoided a run-off. Turnout in those boxes was twice that of those in the northern half of Precinct 1, lying within CD 10.