In Tuesday’s primary in Texas, Clinton’s winning margin of votes among Hispanics was nearly three times as great as her overall statewide lead in votes. Calculations based on exit poll data show that Obama carried Texas by 55% to 44% among all non-Hispanic voters. However, Hispanics accounted for 32% of votes cast in the Texas primary, up from 24% in 2004. They favored Clinton over Obama by 66% to 32%.

In the Feb. 5 primary in California, Clinton’s winning margin of votes among Hispanics was slightly larger than her statewide tally over Obama. Based on calculations made using exit poll data, the vote for Clinton and Obama among all non-Hispanic voters was a statistical dead heat of 46% to 46%. However, Hispanics made up 30% of the Democratic primary electorate in California, up from 16% in the 2004 Democratic primary. They favored Clinton over Obama by 67% to 32%.

In a tight race, Clinton won New Mexico by only one percentage point. Among Hispanics, however, her winning margin of votes was nine times as great as her overall statewide vote lead. Non-Hispanics voted for Obama 56% to 41%. In contrast, Hispanics favored Clinton 62% to 36%, and they were 35% of all voters.

In several other states, the Hispanic contribution to Clinton victories was not as pivotal as it was in Texas, California and New Mexico, but it was significant nonetheless. Hispanics accounted for 20% or more of Clinton’s winning margin in three of the four other states for which the Hispanic vote can be reliably estimated based on exit poll results — Arizona, Florida and New Jersey.

Clinton may have won all of these states even if Hispanics had not turned out in such large numbers and had not favored her by such lopsided margins. But her margin of victory would have been smaller, as would the number of delegates she garnered.

In Illinois, the only state with a large Hispanic electorate that Clinton has not won, Hispanics gave their support narrowly to their home-state senator. Obama carried the Hispanic vote in Illinois by one percentage point, compared with his overall victory margin of 38 percentage points.

As the rest of the primary season unfolds, Hispanics will play a lesser role because they do not constitute a major share of the eligible voters in any of the remaining states. However, on June 1 voters in Puerto Rico will choose their 55 pledged delegates and Hispanics will comprise virtually the entire electorate in that contest. Also, if there is a revote in Florida and Michigan — as some Democratic Party leaders are now urging — Hispanics are poised to play a significant role in Florida, where they accounted for 12% of the turnout in a January 29 primary that produced no delegates because of an intra-party dispute over the timing of the contest. In that January vote, Hispanics in Florida favored Clinton over Obama by 59% to 30%.

"So far this year, 78 percent of Hispanics who have voted in presidential election contests have voted Democratic,'' says Andres Ramires, vice president for Hispanic Programs at the New Democrat Network. And their numbers have accounted for 15 percent of the overall vote in 2008, their studies have found, up from nine percent in 2004.

"These results are just the latest in a long line of evidence indicating that the anti-immigrant stance of the GOP, first adopted in late 2005, has turned the Hispanic community against Republicans and has encouraged them to vote in unprecedented numbers,'' he says.