FACTBOX: Texas and its presidential primary

(Reuters) - The Texas Democratic primary on March 4 is considered a must-win for the embattled campaign of Sen. Hillary Clinton against rival Sen. Barack Obama. Republican presidential front runner Sen. John McCain has an almost insurmountable lead over his last major Republican rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Following are a few facts about Texas and its primary:

* Texas Democrats will send 228 delegates to their national convention. A total of 126 delegates will be distributed to presidential candidates based on the results of the March 4 primary, and 42 more delegates will be distributed based a process leading up to the state convention June 6-7. The remaining delegates will be pledged and unpledged party and elected officials.

* The Lone Star state's economy, with a gross domestic product of $881 billion in 2004, is larger than the 16th biggest national economy in world, Indonesia. Only California and New York have bigger U.S. state economies. The leading industries in Texas are trade, real estate, and oil and gas. Texas is the nation's second most populous state after California with 20.9 million people.

* Analysts say Clinton's hopes in Texas rest heavily on her ability to win overwhelming support from the state's Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters have largely backed the New York senator over Obama, but that support seems no longer guaranteed as polls show many younger voters leaning toward the Illinois senator. There are an estimated 8.3 million Hispanics in Texas, second only to the estimated 12 million in California.

* Conservatives have dominated both political parties in Texas in the recent era. The state political climate has been marked by a preference for low taxes and a relatively low level of state services, a generally anti-union work environment, culturally conservative social policy, and limited environmental regulation.

* Texas ranks last in the country by percentage of residents with a high school diploma (78.3 pct) and total tax burden per capita ($1,368). It ranks first among states for executions since 2005 (19) and shopping malls built since 2004-2005 (112).

SOURCES: Texas Democrats; Texas State Library and Archives Commission; Census Bureau; "Texas Politics," the University of Texas at Austin; StateMaster.com

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal)