Did Bush underperform in Texas?

[Sumner 1868]

Yeah, he turned lots of those Blue Dog counties into GOP strongholds, but 59.30% is pretty weak for a very popular governor who nearly hit seventy percent only two years earlier. All things considered, Bush on paper should have at least matched Reagan's 1984 record.

It seems his main problem was weak swings in the metros.

[OSR stands with Israel]

No not even close , as a party’s ceiling in Presidential Elections in a state are different than Gubernatorial elections . Bush’s performance in Texas were the third and forth best performances in Texas by a Republican ever and if you take into account that Nixon and Reagan won by huge landslides nation wide then it’s really the best and second best .

[One Term Floridian]

No Bush performed solidly in TX. Reagan’s margins are completely irrelevant here because he nearly won a coast-to-coast landslide, whereas W won a squeaker in 2000 and a close race in 2004. Just look at TX’s margins before and after he was President and you’ll see that in 2000 & 2004 he got one of the biggest home state bumps in recent memory. This home state effect turned TX from a Likely R state into essentially a titanium R state on both the local and federal levels until the rise of Donald Trump.

1988: R+12.6
1992: R+3.4
1996: R+4.9
2000: R+21.3
2004: R+22.9
2008: R+11.8
2012: R+15.8
2016: R+9

[Politician]

No Bush performed solidly in TX. Reagan’s margins are completely irrelevant here because he nearly won a coast-to-coast landslide, whereas W won a squeaker in 2000 and a close race in 2004. Just look at TX’s margins before and after he was President and you’ll see that in 2000 & 2004 he got one of the biggest home state bumps in recent memory. This home state effect turned TX from a Likely R state into essentially a titanium R state on both the local and federal levels until the rise of Donald Trump.

1988: R+12.6
1992: R+3.4
1996: R+4.9
2000: R+21.3
2004: R+22.9
2008: R+11.8
2012: R+15.8
2016: R+9

Also TX's PVI each cycle:
1988: R+4
1992: R+8
1996: R+13.5
2000: R+22
2004: R+20.5
2008: R+19
2012: R+20
2016: R+11

[One Term Floridian]

No Bush performed solidly in TX. Reagan’s margins are completely irrelevant here because he nearly won a coast-to-coast landslide, whereas W won a squeaker in 2000 and a close race in 2004. Just look at TX’s margins before and after he was President and you’ll see that in 2000 & 2004 he got one of the biggest home state bumps in recent memory. This home state effect turned TX from a Likely R state into essentially a titanium R state on both the local and federal levels until the rise of Donald Trump.

1988: R+12.6
1992: R+3.4
1996: R+4.9
2000: R+21.3
2004: R+22.9
2008: R+11.8
2012: R+15.8
2016: R+9

Also TX's PVI each cycle:
1988: R+4
1992: R+8
1996: R+13.5
2000: R+22
2004: R+20.5
2008: R+19
2012: R+20
2016: R+11

Yep and as for Reagan:

1980: R+3
1984: R+8.7

W dominated in TX, ‘nuff said lol

[OSR stands with Israel]

No Bush performed solidly in TX. Reagan’s margins are completely irrelevant here because he nearly won a coast-to-coast landslide, whereas W won a squeaker in 2000 and a close race in 2004. Just look at TX’s margins before and after he was President and you’ll see that in 2000 & 2004 he got one of the biggest home state bumps in recent memory. This home state effect turned TX from a Likely R state into essentially a titanium R state on both the local and federal levels until the rise of Donald Trump.

1988: R+12.6
1992: R+3.4
1996: R+4.9
2000: R+21.3
2004: R+22.9
2008: R+11.8
2012: R+15.8
2016: R+9

And before 1994 Texas was just a Lean R state at best and at state level was a Lean D state and Bush basically obliterated the Texas Democratic Party for a generation . I mean Democrats have won state wide in Wyoming , Utah , Idaho , Oklahoma more recently than they have in Texas and that is all due to George W Bush .

[Sumner 1868]

No Bush performed solidly in TX. Reagan’s margins are completely irrelevant here because he nearly won a coast-to-coast landslide, whereas W won a squeaker in 2000 and a close race in 2004. Just look at TX’s margins before and after he was President and you’ll see that in 2000 & 2004 he got one of the biggest home state bumps in recent memory. This home state effect turned TX from a Likely R state into essentially a titanium R state on both the local and federal levels until the rise of Donald Trump.

1988: R+12.6
1992: R+3.4
1996: R+4.9
2000: R+21.3
2004: R+22.9
2008: R+11.8
2012: R+15.8
2016: R+9

And before 1994 Texas was just a Lean R state at best and at state level was a Lean D state and Bush basically obliterated the Texas Democratic Party for a generation . I mean Democrats have won state wide in Wyoming , Utah , Idaho , Oklahoma more recently than they have in Texas and that is all due to George W Bush .

I didn't question the state's PVI was solidly Republican in 2000. It just seems he did pretty weak in the metros given how popular he was and how notoriously regionalist Texans are. Maybe the gun issue capped his margin a bit? Then again, he seems to have overperformed in Austin, so who knows?