Obama Campaign: Tuesday Won't Result In Major Delegate Shift
HOUSTON -- With just four days remaining until the March 4th contests, the Obama campaign believes that they have narrowed Clinton's lead in Texas and Ohio. Campaign manager David Plouffe said the race will be close on Tuesday but it is unlikely that they will have a big effect on the pledged delegate count.
"The most likely outcome next Tuesday is not a huge delegate swing either way," Plouffe said on a conference call with reporters.
Plouffe said the campaign is already looking forward to the Wyoming caucus and the Mississippi primary, where they launched an aggressive advertising campaign today. He said although these races are close, he believes Clinton will have trouble closing in on Obama's pledged delegate lead.
"If our lead after Tuesday is in the 160 range, they would need to win 74% of every remaining pledged delegate to get the pledged delegate contest back to even."
Obama continues to campaign in Texas today, where he will speak to veterans and Hispanic voters. Obama, a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, will host a town hall meeting in Houston, where he will focus veterans issues. According to the campaign, Texas has lost over 360 troops in the Iraq war, 37 of which are from the Houston area.
He will also make his way to the Rio Grande Valley this afternoon, where he will speak to Hispanic evangelical ministers. The campaign has been aggressively courting religious voters in Texas through direct mail. They began distributing a mailer yesterday, which describes Obama as a "committed Christian. The mailer, titled "Faith, Hope, Change," shows Obama standing at a church pulpit.