2008United States presidential election in Texas

← 2004 November 4, 2008 2012 →
Turnout	59.5% (of registered voters) 45.5% (of voting age population)[1]
Nominee John McCain Barack Obama Party Republican Democratic Home state Arizona Illinois Running mate Sarah Palin Joe Biden Electoral vote 34 0 Popular vote 4,479,328 3,528,633 Percentage 55.38% 43.63%
County results Congressional district results Precinct results McCain   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Obama   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100%
President before election George W. Bush Republican Elected President Barack Obama Democratic

The2008 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 4, 2008, and was part of the2008 United States presidential election. Voters chose 34 representatives, or electors to theElectoral College, who voted forpresident andvice president.

Prior to the election, all news organizations considered this a state McCain would win, or a safered state. Polling throughout the state showed McCain consistently and substantially leading Obama. On Election Day, McCain easily won the state, although his margin of victory was significantly less than that ofGeorge W. Bush in2000 or2004. This was the first election since1996 in which the margin of victory was less than one million votes. Regardless, with its 34 electoral votes, Texas was the largest prize for McCain in 2008.

This election marked the last time (through the2024 presidential election) that the Democratic candidate wonBrewster County. It was also the last in whichKenedy County voted for the winning candidate until2024.

• 2008 Texas Democratic presidential primary and caucuses
• 2008 Texas Republican presidential primary

There were 16 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day:

McCain won every single pre-election poll. The final 3 polls averaged McCain leading 52% to 41%.^[15]

Obama raised $20,424,500. McCain raised $17,990,153.^[16]

Obama and his interest groups spent $9,917,565. McCain and his interest groups spent $33,983.^[17] Both campaigns visited the state twice.^[18]

Texas, split between the south and southwest regions of the United States, has become a consistently Republican state at all levels and is the home state of then PresidentGeorge W. Bush. Economically and racially diverse, Texas includes a very large swath of theBible Belt, a region in which many voters, especially those in rural areas, identify as born-again or evangelical Christians, and tend to vote Republican due to theirsocially conservative views. Although once part of theSolid South, Texas has not voted for a Democratic presidential nominee sinceJimmy Carter in1976.

McCain did well throughout the state, winning the vast majority of counties by double digits. He took almost every county in Eastern Texas, including many traditionally-Democratic areas. All the suburbs of the major cities voted Republican by large margins. He also dominated theTexas Panhandle (includingAmarillo), thePermian Basin (includingMidland andOdessa) and theSouth Plains (includingLubbock), three of the most conservative regions in the country. He won these three regions by margins of three-to-one—his largest margin of victory in the entire country.^[19] These areas had been among the first in Texas where the old-line conservative Democrats started splitting their tickets and voting Republican nationally; some counties in this region haven't supported a Democrat sinceHarry S. Truman in1948.King County, a thinly populated county near the Panhandle, gave McCain 92.64% of the vote to Obama's 4.91%, McCain's best margin in any county in the nation.

Despite the expected loss, Obama improved substantially upon John Kerry's performance in2004, narrowing the margin of victory from 22.83% down to 11.77%. He was able to flip majorurban counties such asDallas,Bexar andHarris counties—home to the cities ofDallas,San Antonio, andHouston respectively. Dallas and Harris had been among the first areas of the state to turn Republican, largely due to an influx of Northern expatriates in the 1940s and 1950s. Neither county had supported a Democrat for president since1964. Bexar had last gone Democratic in 1996.^[20] A strong turnout of minority voters gave Obama the edge in these three counties. Obama also performed strongly inTravis County, which contains the state capital and liberal bastion ofAustin;El Paso County, which contains the city ofEl Paso, due in large part to heavy support byHispanics; and many of the Latino-majority counties in theRio Grande Valley along the border withMexico, which have strongly supported Democrats for decades. Although Obama lostTarrant county, he did do well in the southern and eastern parts ofFort Worth and the eastern part ofArlington.^[21]

During the same election, incumbent RepublicanU.S. SenatorJohn Cornyn was reelected with 54.82% of the vote to DemocratRick Noriega’s 42.84%.Libertarian Yvonne Adams Schick received the remaining 2.34%. Republicans also knocked off aDemocratic incumbent from Texas in theU.S. House of Representatives. At the state level, however, Democrats picked up three seats in theTexas House of Representatives and one seat in theTexas Senate.

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Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Bexar (largest city:San Antonio)
• Brewster (largest city:Alpine)
• Cameron (largest community:Brownsville)
• Culberson (largest municipality:Van Horn)
• Dallas (largest city:Dallas)
• Frio (largest municipality:Pearsall)
• Harris (largest community:Houston)
• Kleberg (largest municipality:Kingsville)
• Reeves (largest municipality:Pecos)
• Val Verde (largest municipality:Del Rio)

John McCain carried 21 of the state's 32 congressional districts, including one district held by a Democrat.

Technically the voters of Texas cast their ballots for electors: representatives to theElectoral College. Texas is allocated 34 electors because it has 32congressional districts and 2senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 34 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 34 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them.^[22] An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as afaithless elector.

The electors of each state and theDistrict of Columbia met on December 15, 2008, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 34 were pledged toJohn McCain andSarah Palin:^[23][24]

1. Marcia Daughtrey
2. Virgil Vickery
3. Charlie O'Reilly
4. Brenda Zielke
5. Mary Darby
6. Melba McDow
7. Paul Pressler
8. James Wiggins
9. Deborah Cupples
10. Frank Alvarez
11. Russ Duerstine
12. Zan Prince
13. Bruce Harris
14. Gordon Starkenburg
15. Sandra Cararas
16. Donene O'Dell
17. Larry Lovelace
18. Nelda Eppes
19. Kenneth Corbin
20. Gene Ryder
21. Robert Hierynomus
22. Terese Raia
23. Arturo Martinez de Vara
24. Thomas Ferguson
25. Robert Long
26. Pat Peale
27. Joel Yowell
28. Judith Hooge
29. Giovanna Searcy
30. Patricia Ann Van Winkle
31. Ronny Risinger
32. Frank Eikenburg
33. Genny Hensz
34. Talmadge Heflin

• United States presidential elections in Texas
• Presidency of Barack Obama

• 2008 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Texas
• 2008 Texas elections

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