Texas gov. candidate Shami votes

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (AP) - Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami voted Thursday in the Texas primary and said he was "100 percent confident" he would prevail and win his party's nomination.

The 67-year-old hair care business founder, wearing red cowboy boots adorned with his CHI product logo, voted at a community center in The Woodlands, a north Houston suburb where he lives.

"It's exciting," he said of voting for himself. "It's a good feeling. It's a confident feeling. I'm excited about it. If I wasn't confident, I wouldn't be here."

The Palestinian-born Shami is among seven Democrats on the primary ballot, although he and former three-term Houston Mayor Bill White are the best-financed of the group. Early voting was ending Friday, and the overall primary vote was set for Tuesday.

"I'm looking for success," he said. "Success is winning. I've been winning at anything I do. I'm looking forward to winning today and winning every day. I can't wait for March 2 to be here."

For the most part, Shami has personally financed his campaign. He said earlier he set aside $10 million of his wealth for his first-ever election effort. As a foundation of his campaign, he has said he would use his business savvy at the government level.

"I learned I really made a good decision, the right decision, to run the state as a business," said Shami. "I'm very disappointed in the quality of career politicians. We need to change those people. Those people really got us where we are in the recession. The system is broken. And who broke it? Career politicians."

Shami said on his first day as governor, he would provide a copy of the state constitution to each legislator to remind them "we need to stick to our values."

The Democratic nominee faces off in November against the winner of the Republican primary, either incumbent Gov. Rick Perry, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or activist Debra Medina.