Ohio and Texas Share the Spotlight

WASHINGTON — Kind of similar. Kind of different. Kind of both fancy themselves as the intergalactic epicenter for college football.

And now maybe kind of as important as any two states ever have been in making presidential history.

In March 4 Democratic primaries, voters in Texas and Ohio could be the final arbiters on whether the nation makes Hillary Clinton the first female presidential nominee of a major party or Barack Obama the first black presidential nominee of a major party.

It's an unusual honor for two states with not much of a recent history of giving its electoral votes to Democratic presidential candidates. Texas hasn't gone for one since Jimmy Carter in 1976. During those years, Ohio has backed one — Bill Clinton — and did it twice.

In both states, Clinton and Obama are offering a turn-around message appealing to Democrats unhappy with the domestic and international status quo. Ohioans have been slammed with factory job losses and high foreclosure rates that have hobbled the state's economy. Both candidates are on the air with ads aligning themselves with just plain folk, with Clinton's camp claiming she "worked the night shift, too" and Obama recalling how his mom worried about paying her health care bills while she was dying of cancer.

Both also have taken a page out of the playbook of Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat who unseated incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine in 2006 by waging a populist campaign heavily critical of trade deals such as NAFTA. Though her husband considered NAFTA a political victory when he was in the White House, Clinton wants it revisited and favors a "time out" on further trade deals.

Obama has told Ohioans he never would've supported NAFTA.

Similar themes are being offered in Texas, but the battle there also is being played out along ethnic and racial lines. Clinton's fate is tied directly to her ability to score heavily among Hispanics, who could provide up to 40 percent of the Democratic vote. Obama is expected to continue to do well among blacks, as well as young voters.

Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson said it's reasonable to expect Obama to get 85 percent or more of the black vote and Clinton to get a smaller, but majority, share of the larger Hispanic vote.

If that happens, Jillson said, the difference-makers could be a portion of the Texas Democratic Party that has been shrinking in recent decades — suburban white Democrats.

A Tale of Two States

The battles are playing out in two states with storied histories an interesting presents. (Rhode Island and Vermont also vote March 4, but are not large enough to turn the momentum of the race.)

Ohio is whiter (84 percent) than Texas (69.8 percent) and the nation (73.9 percent.) Each state is just under 12 percent black, a hair below the national level.

Texas (35.7 percent) is far more Hispanic than Ohio (2.3 percent) and the U.S. (14.8 percent).

But as in much of America, the Hispanic population is rising in Ohio. That's a positive trend for Hayley Head of Columbus – born and educated in Texas, married to an Ohioan.

"Mexican food has made its way to Ohio, and good Mexican food," said Head, an Austin native and daughter of the late J. Manley Head, a Texas state senator. "When we moved here 19 years ago it was Chi-Chi's and Taco Bell. Now we've got some great mom-and-pop Mexican restaurants."

Which leads to another difference between some Texans and Ohioans: Love of Mexican food. Austinite Bob Kahn, a Cleveland native, has been in Texas since the Air Force sent him in 1981 for a tour of duty that led to his first encounter with Mexican food.

Twenty-seven years later, he's still not a fan.

"The closest I come to eating Mexican is huevos rancheros," he said. "Eggs and beans."

Head, the Texan-turned-Ohioan, and Kahn, the Ohioan-turned-Texan, agree there's nothing very distinctive about Ohio cuisine.

"Golly. Oh geez," Head said when asked to name an indigenous Ohio dish. "There is none. Buffalo wings are popular here. And they are from Buffalo."

Ohio does have buckeye candies, a tasty peanut butter and chocolate confection, she noted. And Cincinnati has Skyline chili, a product Head claims is a fraud.

"It's got cinnamon and chocolate in it and they pour it over spaghetti. It's not chili. It's a spaghetti topping to me," she said.

In fact, Skyline Chili comes from Greece, according to Skyline's Website note about the restaurant's founder: "From a small kitchen in the village of Kastoria, Greece, a fascinated young Nicholas Lambrinades watched as his mother and grandmother prepared authentic Greek dishes. Their recipes had been passed down from generation to generation."

Mr. Kahn, can you name a dish that defines the state of your birth?

"Um, I think mostly the people in Ohio are steak-and- potatoes people," he said. "Growing up, steak was the big thing on weekends. A lot of steak."

For the record: The official state beverage of Ohio is tomato juice.

Some more statistical, demographic and political comparisons: Ohio is more rural and has a higher median age. Texas is bigger (perhaps you've heard that before) and has more people.

A similarity: Neither state registers voters by party.

A Tale of Two Charlie Wilsons

Ohio has a Democratic congressman named Charlie Wilson who has not had a movie made about him. Texas used to have a Democratic congressman named Charlie Wilson who has had a movie made about him.

Ohio Charlie, a mortician, is one of only five ever to get to Congress as a write-in candidate.

Both states recently had governors descended from presidents (Ohio's Taft, Texas' Bush).

Both states had unique beginnings. Texas was a nation. Ohio, the 17th state, joined the union in 1803 when it became the first state that was not one of the original 13 nor carved out of territory in the first 13.

Texas and Ohio share many city names, including Columbus, Cleveland, Arlington, Dayton and Franklin. The latter is not really much of a coincidence. There are 26 Franklins around the country.

Ohio has a Clinton (population 1,400). Texas does not. Neither state has an Obama, yet.

Texas has an Austin. Ohio has an Austintown.

Both states have weather. Head and Kahn agree Texas' is better.

"It's so gray," Kahn said of Columbus. "Only a third of our days have sunshine in them. Right now I'm looking at a foot of snow. Fall can be beautiful. Summer is a lot like Texas, hot and humid."

Spring in Ohio, she said, is the worst season: "Gray and wet and damp and kind of cold."

"I'm used to Texas where by March you can start working on a tan line," she said. "That doesn't happen here."

Kahn says there are Austin days that remind him of Ohio.

"When it's cloudy and rainy and chilly here, I call that Cleveland weather – dreary and cloudy and depressing," he said.

And who's prouder of their native state?

Head's middle child is named Austin.

Kahn and wife Pat (also a native Ohioan) did not name their only child Cleveland.