2008: Valley center of political spotlight

The Rio Grande Valley entered the national spotlight in 2008, becoming a popular destination for candidates embroiled in a contentious presidential primary.

Although former president Bill Clinton and wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., campaigned here in the 1990s, and candidates have held fundraisers in the Valley, the region is largely forgotten during presidential campaigns, residents and officials say.

Not so in February, shortly before the Texas primary. Within days of one another, presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and now-President-elect Barack Obama spoke in the Valley to crowds of thousands.

Other prominent politicians and public figures, including Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and former first daughters Caroline Kennedy and Chelsea Clinton, also stumped here for their favorite candidates.

The candidates were courting the Mexican-American vote in the hotly contested primary, local professors said.

"It points out the fact the Valley is really a sleeping giant," said Tony Zavaleta, a sociologist at The University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College, in February.

In the past, candidates often made cursory stops in Texas because the state's votes in the primary weren't seen as pivotal in determining a party's nominee, experts say. In early 2008, Obama and Clinton were nearly neck and neck, making Texas' electoral votes essential.

Clinton ultimately won the Texas primary with the help of the Valley, which voted overwhelmingly for Clinton. She later lost the Democratic
presidential nomination to Obama, but has been selected as secretary of state.