The Republican presidential primary is still wide open. There's Mitt Romney in the delegate lead, followed by Rick Santorum, and then Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul in the second half of the pack.
But no one candidate has even close to the delegates needed to claim the nomination. Suddenly, a later than normal Texas primary, created when the federal courts redrew the state's redistricting map, doesn't sound so bad.
"Clearly Texas is gonna be in play. That's good for us at the Republican party, and for the Republicans, that allows us to get up a lot of support. Folks come out and vote in November," said Jared Woodfill, Chairman of the Harris County GOP Party.
Texas has 155 convention delegates to offer. More than that, the race to the nomination is still undecided, so expect Texas will soon be inundated with campaign trips, certainly from Romney and Santorum, and plenty of campaign advertising.
"We don't vote for another 80, 90 days, so this thing is gonna go on for a while," said Dr. Richard Murray, KTRK Political Analyst.
The first wave of ads and political mailers could begin in the next one or two weeks.
