I don't understand, what are they doing in Texas?

[Levgreee]

What's the purpose? What's the impact on the delegate counts and campaigns?

[ClassWarrior]

1. They're choosing the people who will be the state's delegates to the DNC.

It's not supposed to change delegate counts. But delegates are free agents, so an irresponsible candidate with too much ambition and enough sway could use that fact to game the system and pack the delegation with his or her supporters.

NGU.

[ClassWarrior]

2. You're welcome.

NGU.

[Igel]

4. Nope. Close, but simpler than is necessary for adequate.

They're choosing delegate for the state convention to be held in June.

Three tiers to the Texas system.

Caucuses the night of the primary select delegates to the county or senate conventions. "Senate convention" is a strange term, but in many cases the state senate district is a better chunk of territory for conventions than a county: I'm in precinct 0541, which means I'm in state Senate district 13--district 13 had its own convention at Texas Southern earlier today. There were a few other conventions held in Harris County (which contains Houston).

The county or Senate conventions choose delegates to the state convention.

The state convention chooses delegates that'll go to the national convention.

[yewberry]

3. Do you know how caucuses work? They're very different from primaries.

"In presidential nomination terms, caucuses refer to meetings of the partisans of one political party to sort out which candidates get that party's support.

Typically, the process involves several rounds of meetings, starting with gatherings at the precinct or other local level, to choose delegates to a next round of meetings based on larger geographic units and so on. The number of delegates is winnowed along the way until the state party's delegation to the national convention is determined.

Rules vary from state to state and party to party, but caucus-selected delegates are generally less formally committed to back the candidate they initially pledged to support than those chosen via a primary. Because the caucus process often takes months, that allows for delegates to switch from candidates who drop out of the race along the way, or to unify behind a candidate whose nomination at the national convention has become a foregone conclusion."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344211_caucusesxx.html

This is the second round of the caucus in Texas. In my state, we'll have the legislative district caucuses next week, the county convention in mid-April, congressional district caucuses in May, and the state convention in June.

You can't make this stuff up.