Edwards wins Texas Democrats' online vote

It's not a caucus or primary. It's not even a straw poll.

But trying to make some hay out of what's at hand, the John Edwards campaign bragged this afternoon that it won what it called an "e-primary" conducted by the Texas Democratic Party.

In an online vote of more than 8,100 Democrats in the Lone Star state Aug. 31 and Sept. 7, Edwards won 38 percent, well ahead of Barack Obama with 21 percent and Hillary Clinton with 20 percent. That order is reversed from national polls.

"John's victory demonstrates that Texas Democrats see him as the candidate of real change," Elizabeth Edwards, who is campaigning today in Texas, said in a statement provided by the campaign. "They know that the system in Washington is broken and that the only way to get real change is to elect a president who will fight for change everyday, who has bold new solutions, and who will take on the entrenched interests, beat them and end the game. John Edwards is that candidate."

The official Texas primary is scheduled for March 4.