2016United States presidential election in Texas

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Turnout	59.4% (of registered voters) 46.5% (ofvoting age population)[1]
Nominee Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Party Republican Democratic Home state New York New York Running mate Mike Pence Tim Kaine Electoral vote 36[a] 0 Popular vote 4,685,047 3,877,868 Percentage 52.23% 43.24%
County results Congressional district results Trump   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%   80–90%   90–100% Clinton   40–50%   50–60%   60–70%   70–80%
President before election Barack Obama Democratic Elected President Donald Trump Republican

The2016 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 8, 2016, as part of the2016 United States presidential election. Primary elections were held on March 1, 2016.

Texas was won byRepublicanDonald Trump and his running mateMike Pence by an 8.99% margin overDemocratsHillary Clinton andTim Kaine. Texas assigned its 38Electoral College votes to the state's popular vote winner, but twofaithless electors chose other candidates, making Texas the only state in 2016 to give Trump fewer than the assigned electoral votes. Even then, its 36 electoral votes were Trump's largest electoral prize in 2016.

When the Electoral College met on December 19, 2016, only 36 of the 38 electors voted for Trump for president. Two electors defected; one voted forOhio GovernorJohn Kasich, and the other voted for former CongressmanRon Paul, making the latter, at 81 and despite not running, the oldest person to ever receive an electoral vote. For vice president, 37 electors voted for Pence, while one voted forCarly Fiorina. This was the first time since1976 where a Republican presidential candidate lost a pledged vote via a faithless elector; that year,Gerald Ford lost aWashington state electoral vote to fellow RepublicanRonald Reagan. Additionally, this was the first time since1972 that the winning presidential candidate lost an electoral vote, whenRichard Nixon lost aVirginia electoral vote toLibertarian Party nomineeJohn Hospers.

Texas was one of eleven states (and the District of Columbia) where Clinton improved onBarack Obama's performance in2012.^[4] Clinton lost Texas by a smaller margin than any Democrat since1996 (though her proportion of the vote was slightly smaller than that received byBarack Obama in2008), which analysts attributed to Trump losing ground with college-educated white voters. Trump's 2016 performance in Texas was the weakest of any victorious Republican nominee sinceRichard Nixon in1968 - the last Republican to win the presidency without carrying Texas. Trump in 2016 was the tenth consecutive Republican presidential nominee to win Texas, beginning withReagan in 1980. Nevertheless, he became the first Republican to win the White House without carryingBexar County sinceRichard Nixon in1968, as well as the first to win without carryingFort Bend County sinceHerbert Hoover in1928, and the first to win without carryingHarris orDallas County sinceCalvin Coolidge in1924.

The Texas Democratic Party held their state's primary in concurrence with the otherSuper Tuesday contests on March 1. Eight candidates appeared on the ballot,Hillary Clinton,Bernie Sanders, dropped-out candidateMartin O'Malley and five minor candidates (Rocky De La Fuente,Willie Wilson, Star Locke,Keith Russell Judd and Calvis Hawes.) The Texas Democratic primary had 251 delegates to theDemocratic National Convention: 222 pledged delegates and 29 super delegates. 145 delegates were allocated proportionally based on the results in the state's 31 senatorial districts. The other 77 pledged delegates were allocated proportionally based on the statewide popular vote.^[5]

2016 Texas Democratic Party presidential primary^[6]

Candidate	Popular vote		Delegates
	Count	Percentage	Pledged delegates	Super delegates	Total delegates
Hillary Clinton	936,004	65.19%	147	21	168
Bernie Sanders	476,547	33.19%	75	0	75
Rocky De Le Fuente	8,429	0.59%	0	0	0
Martin O'Malley	5,364	0.37%	0	0	0
Willie Wilson	3,254	0.23%	0	0	0
Keith Russell Judd	2,569	0.18%	0	0	0
Calvis L. Hawes	2,017	0.14%	0	0	0
Star Locke	1,711	0.12%	0	0	0
Uncommitted	n/a			8	8
Total:	1,435,895	100%	222	29	251

2016 Texas Republican Party presidential primary^[7]

Candidate	Popular vote		Delegates
	Count	Percentage
Ted Cruz	1,241,118	43.76%	104
Donald Trump	758,762	26.75%	48
Marco Rubio	503,055	17.74%	3
John Kasich	120,473	4.25%	0
Ben Carson	117,969	4.16%	0
Jeb Bush	35,420	1.25%	0
Uncommitted	29,609	1.04%	0
Rand Paul	8,000	0.28%	0
Mike Huckabee	6,226	0.22%	0
Elizabeth Gray	5,449	0.19%	0
Chris Christie	3,448	0.12%	0
Carly Fiorina	3,247	0.11%	0
Rick Santorum	2,006	0.07%	0
Lindsey Graham	1,706	0.06%	0
Total:	2,836,488	100%	155

The Texas Green Party held its partycaucuses at conventions at the precinct level on March 8,^[8] the county level on March 12,^[9] and the district level on March 19,^[10] leading up to the state nominating convention inGrey Forest, Texas, on April 9 and 10.^[11]

On April 10 it was announced thatJill Stein had won the state convention.^[12]

Texas Green Party presidential caucus, Saturday, April 9, 2016

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	National delegates
Jill Stein	-	-	15
Sedinam Moyowasifza-Curry	-	-	3
Darryl Cherney	-	-	2
Kent Mesplay	-	-	2
William Kreml	-	-	1
Total	-	100.00%	23

The Green Party did host theirNational Convention in Houston from August 4–6^[13] at theUniversity of Houston^[14] making it the last physical convention for the Green Party to date for a presidential election as one was held virtually for the 2020 and 2024 elections.^[15][16]

Trump won every single pre-election poll with margins varying from 2 to 14 points. Trump won the last poll 49% to 35% and the average of the last three polls showed Trump leading 50% to 38%.^[17]

The following are final 2016 predictions from various organizations for Texas as of Election Day.

The voting age population was 19,307,355, of which 15,101,087 were registered to vote. Turnout was 8,969,226, which is 46.45% of the voting age population and 59.39% of registered voters. The early voting period lasted for two weeks ending November 4, with 43.5% of registered voters casting early or absentee ballots. Out of those who cast votes, 73% cast their ballots early or absentee and 26% voted on Election Day.^[27]

Thirteen candidates received write-in votes, of which the large majority (42,366) went toEvan McMullin.

Swing by county

Legend

•   Democratic — +12.5-15%
•   Democratic — +10-12.5%
•   Democratic — +7.5-10%
•   Democratic — +5-7.5%
•   Democratic — +2.5-5%
•   Democratic — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +2.5-5%
•   Republican — +5-7.5%
•   Republican — +7.5-10%
•   Republican — +10-12.5%
•   Republican — +12.5-15%
•   Republican — +>15%

Trend relative to the state by county

Legend

•   Democratic — +7.5-10%
•   Democratic — +5-7.5%
•   Democratic — +2.5-5%
•   Democratic — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +0-2.5%
•   Republican — +2.5-5%
•   Republican — +5-7.5%
•   Republican — +7.5-10%
•   Republican — +10-12.5%
•   Republican — +12.5-15%
•   Republican — +>15%

County flips

Legend

• Democratic   Hold   Gain from Republican

  Republican   Hold   Gain from Democratic

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Jefferson (largest city:Beaumont)

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Fort Bend (largest city:Sugar Land)
• Kenedy (largest community:Sarita)

Trump won 22 of 36 congressional districts, while Clinton won 14, including three held by Republicans.^[32]

While he continued the Republican 10-cycle winning streak in Texas,^[33] Trump's winning margin was down fromMitt Romney's 15.79% in2012 to 8.99%, a 6.80% drop, making 2016 the closest Democrats had come to winning Texas since1996 (though the Democrats also received a smaller percentage of the vote in Texas in this election than in the2008 presidential election). The surge in Democratic votes can partly be attributed to a growing population ofHispanics/Latinos, Trump's relatively weak performance with college-educated white voters, and the growth of cities and their respective suburbs in theTexas Triangle region, which are heavily populated with both college-educated voters and minorities and thus swung more Democratic compared to 2012.^[34] These were Clinton's main sources of votes. She swept theRio Grande region counties, such asEl Paso,Webb,Hidalgo andCameron as they have sizable Hispanic populations.

Due to Trump's underperformance with college-educated white voters, Clinton made major gains in theTexas Triangle. Clinton scored a 38-point sweep inTravis County, home to the state capital ofAustin and theUniversity of Texas at Austin, the best Democratic performance in the county since1964. She became the first Democrat to break 60% of the vote inDallas County since1944. Furthermore, she outperformed Obama in the minority-heavy counties ofBexar (San Antonio) andHarris County (Houston), shifting his slim victories into double-digit leads.^[35] In fact, the Presidential vote inTexas' 7th Congressional District, which includes Houston's inner-west suburbs, had the biggest change in margin towards Clinton compared to Obama's 2012 performance outside of Utah, shifting 23 points left.^[36] Clinton also won suburbanFort Bend County for the first time since Texas nativeLyndon B. Johnson in1964, which was attributed to the county's large immigrant population and negative perception of Trump by female Republican voters.^[37] While Clinton didn't win heavily college-educated suburban counties such asDenton County,Williamson County,Collin County, orHays County, her margin of defeat was much narrower than other Democratic presidential nominees.^[38] Places that had large numbers of young voters in the state were a stronghold for Clinton as well.^[39] Texas Lieutenant GovernorDan Patrick suggested that Trump's relatively small margin of victory could have been largely due to many moderate Republican voters who had supported Romney in 2012 staying home. In an interview conducted the morning after the election, Patrick said in reference to these voters, "Had they turned out, he would've been in the low teens".^[40]

In total, Clinton beat Trump in 27 counties by a total of 883,819 votes, and had the best percentage performance of any other Democrat running statewide. Conversely, Trump, who won 227 of the state's 254 counties, got the smallest percentage of the vote of all Republicans running in the state.^[41]

Trump was the first Republican to carry Jefferson County in East Texas since 1972. As of the2024 election, this is the most recent election whereFrio,Jim Wells,Kenedy,Kleberg,La Salle,Reeves,Val Verde, andZapata counties have voted Democratic, as rural Hispanic-majority South Texas has trended heavily Republican in the two elections since, and the most recent election whereHays County has voted Republican.

• United States presidential elections in Texas
• First presidency of Donald Trump
• 2016 Democratic Party presidential debates
• 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• 2016 Republican Party presidential debates
• 2016 Republican Party presidential primaries

• David Weigel; Lauren Tierney (October 4, 2020),"The seven political states of Texas",Washingtonpost.com, archived fromthe original on October 5, 2020.

• RNC 2016 Republican Nominating ProcessArchived November 8, 2016, at theWayback Machine
• Green papers for 2016 primaries, caucuses, and conventions
• Decision Desk Headquarter Results for Texas

• 2016 United States presidential election by state
• United States presidential elections in Texas
• 2016 Texas elections

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