I still could never understand how Santos, a Congressman from Houston, was able to carry Texas, when Hoynes, a Texas Senator, wasn't.
This!!
In 2002, Bartlet/Hoynes won the Dakotas and Nebraska, and yet they somehow lost the 'red bastion' of Texas, despite Hoynes being a popular former senator from there. But just four years later, in a very close and significantly more polarized race, a little-known Houston-area congressman is able to flip the state Democratic? What? The only explanation even remotely possible is that it went Republican very narrowly in 2002, and between 2002 and 2006 saw a lot of demographic change. Furthermore, Santos exploded turnout in the Houston metropolitan area among Democrats. Thus, TX narrowly shifted leftward to support him.