 In 2013, Allen Turner of the "Houston Chronicle" said that residents of Harris County were "consistently conservative in elections" and that they were, according to a Rice University Kinder Institute for Urban Research opinion poll, "surprisingly liberal on topics such as immigration, gun control and equal matrimonial rights for same-sex couples".Harris is regarded as a moderate or swing county in Texas, and has been a bellwether in Presidential elections, voting for winners of every Presidential election from 2000 through 2012 (both Barack Obama and Texas resident George W. Bush have won the county).As a result of the Obama sweep in 2008, many Democratic candidates in contests for lower-level offices also benefited, and many Republican incumbents were replaced by Democrats in the Harris County courthouse.