Here's how Texas voted in every presidential election since 1976
Texas last backed the Democratic candidate for president 40 years ago, when Jimmy Carter defeated Republican Gerald Ford by 3.2 percentage points.
In the nine elections since then, the state has been a reliable Republican stronghold.
Heading into Election Day, the race for Texas' 38 electoral votes between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton is unusually tight.
While the latest polls suggest the state will remain red, Democrats are hopeful that Trump will draw a smaller margin of victory than Republicans have seen from Texas in decades.
Since Carter's win, Democrat Bill Clinton came the closest to turning Texas blue in 1992.
Clinton lost the state to then-President George H.W. Bush by 3.5 percentage points, in an election in which independent Ross Perot, a Texan, drew 22 percent of the state's vote.
Year | Winning candidate | Runner-up | Margin of victory |
1976 | Jimmy Carter | Gerald Ford | 3.2 pts. |
1980 | Ronald Reagan | Jimmy Carter | 13.9 pts. |
1984 | Ronald Reagan | Walter Mondale | 27.5 pts. |
1988 | George H.W. Bush | Michael Dukakis | 12.6 pts. |
1992 | George H.W. Bush | Bill Clinton | 3.5 pts. |
1996 | Bob Dole | Bill Clinton | 4.9 pts. |
2000 | George W. Bush | Al Gore | 21.3 pts. |
2004 | George W. Bush | John F. Kerry | 22.9 pts. |
2008 | John McCain | Barack Obama | 11.8 pts. |
2012 | Mitt Romney | Barack Obama | 15.8 pts. |
Source: Texas Secretary of State Credit: Annie Daniel
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues. Read more here.
This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Here's how Texas voted in every presidential election since 1976."