Dallas: Incumbent Rick Perry beat Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison in a bruising primary election on Tuesday to decide the Republican candidate for Texas governor.
"I have called Governor Perry congratulating him on his victory," Hutchison said in televised remarks from Dallas, after early poll results showed Perry with a commanding lead.
The poll results showed Perry, who has been governor since 2000, with more than the 50 percent needed to avoid an April runoff.
He will face former Houston Mayor Bill White in the November general election. White beat Houston businessman Farouk Shami in the Democratic primary.
After trailing the popular Hutchison in initial polls in 2009, Perry surged to a commanding lead by mobilizing his party`s most conservative members and harnessing disenchantment with Washington-style politics and President Barack Obama.
"I think the message is pretty clear -- conservatism has never been stronger than it is today," Perry told reporters on Tuesday night in Driftwood.
Hutchison, a senator since 1993, urged her supporters to unite behind Perry`s candidacy.
She had sought to embrace more moderate Republicans and gained the endorsement of prominent party members like former President George H.W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Hutchison is the only woman ever to serve as a U.S. senator from Texas. She tried to use Perry`s incumbency against him by attempting to paint him as a creature of Austin, where he has been Texas` longest-serving governor. But Perry`s portrayal of her as a Washington insider largely stuck, analysts say.
Perry labored to put as much distance as possible between himself and Washington by turning down some federal stimulus dollars and challenging the federal government`s basis for regulating carbon dioxide emissions in court.
Hutchison accused Perry of cronyism related to state highway construction projects, and has drawn attention to a high dropout rate in the state`s schools.
Bureau Report
