Neighborhoods divided: How Tarrant residents voted in the March primaries

Pat Carlson believes she and her neighbors got it right.

Even though the national battle to determine presidential nominees has yet to be settled, she and others in their east Fort Worth community cast enough votes for Donald Trump to make their area one of 46 precincts that the New York billionaire won in Tarrant County.

“That delights me because I’m a Trump supporter,” said Carlson, a former Tarrant County Republican chairwoman who lives in Precinct 1199. “There was no get-out-the-vote effort for him in our gated community.

“That tells me that Trump is bringing in some Democrats,” said Carlson, 67, who lives near Mosier Lake. “Some Democrats crossed over and voted for him.”

Trump may lead the delegate count nationally, but it was a different story in Texas — and in Tarrant County.

Tarrant County went as the state did: Republicans supported Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Democrats backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But a look at the county’s 694 voting precincts showed pockets of support for other candidates, although some won precincts by just one or two votes. And some side-by-side neighborhoods supported different candidates.

Cruz, second in the national delegate count, won 495 of Tarrant County’s precincts.

Coming in a distant second was Trump, who won nearly four dozen local precincts, and in third was Marco Rubio, no longer in the race, who won 34.

Ben Carson, also no longer in the race, won two, and John Kasich won one precinct, Tarrant County election records show.

On the Democratic side, front-runner Clinton, who claimed victory in Texas, won 540 Tarrant County precincts to Bernie Sanders’ 51.

In some precincts, no presidential votes at all were cast — 89 on the Republican side, 93 on the Democratic side.

“It’s not surprising that the Tarrant County results would magnify the results for Texas as a whole,” said Jim Riddlesperger, a political science professor at TCU.

“While the Republicans are conservative in Tarrant County, … the Democrats in Tarrant County, although the minority here, are quite national among what they look like.”

Cruz victories

Raw numbers show that in the March 1 Texas primary, Cruz won 88,990 votes in Tarrant County, to Trump’s 56,084 and Rubio’s 43,754.

A Tarrant County map showing precincts each presidential candidate won paints Cruz’s victories across the board, stretching from corner to corner and throughout the county.

Steve Hardin’s west Arlington neighborhood and nearly 500 other precincts picked Cruz — a master at gaining grassroots support since he bested Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in a 2012 battle for the Senate — as the winner.

“We feel that Ted Cruz is the only POTUS candidate that has actively worked to fulfill the promises made on the campaign trail,” said Hardin, who lives in Precinct 2266 not far from Lake Arlington. “Cruz is a man who overtly works to do what he says he will.

“He has a rapport with our community that is absent in the other candidates. He is the only true conservative left in the race,” he said. “This precinct has had it with the entrenched, establishment, go-along-to-get-along Republican leadership.”

Larry Stevens believes that his north Fort Worth subdivision made the right choice in picking Cruz.

“I believe America is not about one person saving our nation and making our nation great again,” said Stevens, a longtime neighborhood and community leader who lives in Precinct 4499. “Our nation is already great.

“We just need a principled leader like Ted Cruz to help restore some of the focus on the principles that have made our nation great, lest we forget and our nation truly loses its greatness.”

Republican wins

Trump, despite drawing thousands to a political rally in Fort Worth days before the election, found just a few local electoral victories.

The former reality TV star won about 15 percent of the local precincts, most in the heart of the county, such as Precinct 1109 near downtown Fort Worth, Precinct 1082 northeast of downtown and Precinct 1010 south of downtown.

Some of his victories came by one or two votes; others had much larger margins.

As for Rubio, the precincts he won were mostly clustered in the southwest portion of the county, although a few were scattered in the north and east.

Kasich won one precinct, 2403, with the only two votes cast in the race there. Carson won two precincts — 1544 in east Fort Worth with the only presidential votes cast there and 1652 on the south side with the only two votes there.

Republican candidates tied in 27 local precincts, local election results show.

Democratic wins

In the Democratic primary, Clinton earned 68,044 votes to Sanders’ 35,733 in Tarrant County.

The precincts she won were spread throughout the county.

Suzann Ross said she was pleased that her far south Arlington Precinct 2522 went for Clinton.

While there wasn’t a big get-out-the-vote push for Clinton here during the primary, some signs were put out at early voting stations, said Ross, who said about one-third of her precinct supported Fort Worth Democrat Wendy Davis in past elections.

“I don’t know why [the] vote was for Clinton in 2522,” she said. “[I] only hope they weren’t Republicans [or people] who will vote for the R’s in November.”

Lynn Johnson isn’t surprised that Sanders won her historic Fairmont neighborhood in Fort Worth. But she said either Clinton or Sanders would be a good choice for the country.

“They both understand the issues important to Americans, like the economy and jobs, healthcare and immigration reform, just to name a few,” said Johnson, who lives in Precinct 4060. “They would both do a far better job as president than the Republicans, and I look forward to voting for our Democratic Party nominee in November.”

Sanders’ wins were scattered.

About a dozen were in northern Tarrant County, but a few were on the east and west sides of the county and a few more were in central and northern Tarrant County.

Gloria Gonzalez-Garcia, 44, said she believes that Sanders is the best choice and hasn’t gotten a fair break.

“I believe Bernie Sanders has not been covered by the media equally as he should,” said Gonzalez-Garcia, who lives in Precinct 4093 not far from Fort Worth Meacham Airport, which went for Clinton. “Even our party supports and favors certain candidates.

“It’s political propaganda,” she said. “People are tired of bad politics and the monetary influence.”

There were 10 precincts where the two Democrats tied, mostly in the northern section of the county, election results show.

At a crossroads

Tarrant County’s precinct-by-precinct breakdown shows how each area weighed in on the presidential race.

Precinct 1298 near TCU, for instance, was won by Rubio in the GOP primary and Sanders in the Democratic primary.

Across town, voters in Ridglea Country Club Estates Precinct 4230 picked Cruz and Clinton.

In Mansfield, Precinct 2524 voters near Walnut Creek Country Club chose Cruz and Clinton; Precinct 2310 voters in west central Arlington near Woodland West chose Cruz and Clinton.

Many of those involved say this is a crucial election year and they hope all the voters who turned out for the primary — and more — will do so again in November.

“Values are again at [a] crossroads, especially as we now have nearly an equal number of [millennials] as baby boomers reaching voting age,” Stevens said. “It is critical for leaders to lead and for our great heritage to be passed along.

“America is about the American experience, not an international melting pot of losing values and failed experiments.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Neighborhoods divided: How Tarrant residents voted in the March primaries."