I have a concern that I want to share with you, and it's about Texas' place in the presidential primary process.

If you combine the number of delegates we have and the Republican presence in the state, it's easy to make the case that no state should trump Texas in determining who our Republican presidential nominee should be. Agreed? (I hope so, because this is in our best interest.)

I reviewed the data from the Republican primaries going back to 1968. These are the non-incumbent years 1968, 1976, 1980, 1988, 1996, 2000, 2008, and 2012.

In every case, no Republican nominee emerged later in the primary/caucus process who didn't win one of the first three contests.

Said another way, the best the rest of the states can do is bless one of the winners of the first three primaries/caucuses.

The reason is that campaign workers go to the winning campaigns, money goes to the winning campaigns, and the media of course trumpets the winners for everyone - and everyone loves a winner.

The moral of this story is that Texas, even with its new Super Tuesday status, gets little say in the process.

The resolution to this, I think, is to create a statewide grassroots caucus that allows only registered Republicans to vote. This couldn't go through the GOP or they would get into trouble with the national party. It couldn't be done by the Secretary of State. This would have to be done independently, by we the people, who don't need permission or blessing to do this.

It would perhaps be too much effort this year. But it's worth considering how to do and how to make this happen. If Texas is to have a voice in the presidential nomination process, tens of thousands of Texans would need to turn out to do this, say, in November - a year prior to the general election.

I've attached the data to this post so you can see for yourself. The nominee always emerges out of the first three, and I believe that Texas must have a say in that.

http://www.earlyvotetexas.com/primaries.xls