Presidential margin, 1848–2024
The gap between the Democratic and Republican shares of the Texas presidential vote in every general election since statehood. Positive is a Democratic lead, negative a Republican lead.
Bars: Democratic share minus Republican share, in points. Line (right axis): the largest share won by any party other than the two majors. 1864 and 1868 are blank — Texas cast no electoral votes during Reconstruction. Only the Democratic and Republican lines are coloured; the 35 other party labels in this data (Whig, Populist, Progressive, American Independent, and so on) are shown in grey and never reassigned to a modern party.
Reading the chart
1848–1860. Texas voted Democratic from its first presidential election; the opposition was the Whig Party, then the Constitutional Union Party in 1860. There is no Republican line before 1872.
1864 and 1868. Texas had seceded and was not readmitted to the Union until 1870, so it appointed no electors and cast no recorded popular vote in these two elections. The chart leaves them blank.
The one-party era, 1872–1948. Texas was reliably Democratic in presidential voting for three-quarters of a century. Two chart features are worth naming: in 1892the Populist (“People’s Party”) candidate James Weaver finished second, ahead of the Republican, so the grey line that year is higher than the red bar; in 1912 Theodore Roosevelt, running as a Progressive, finished second and the regular Republican third, which is why the Democratic-minus-Republican bar looks unusually large. Herbert Hoover carried Texas in 1928, the first Republican to do so.
1952 and 1956. Texas voted for Dwight Eisenhower twice while continuing to elect Democrats to nearly every state and local office.
1968 and 1992. The two elections with the largest minor-party showings: George Wallace (American Independent) took about 19% in 1968, and Ross Perot about 22% in 1992. Hubert Humphrey and George H. W. Bush respectively carried the state by close margins those years.
1980 onward. The bars cross from Democratic to Republican and stay there. The Republican margin was widest in the 1972 and 1984 landslides, narrowed to about five points in 2020, and widened again in 2024.
Every Texas presidential result
Winner and runner-up as they appear in the canvass. Margin is winner minus runner-up. “Largest other” is the biggest share won by any other party, in whatever place they finished.
| Year | Winner | Runner-up | Margin (votes) | Margin (share) | Total votes | Largest other |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1848 | Lewis Cass (Democratic) | Zachary Taylor (Whig) | 6,159 | 40.6% | 15,177 | Zachary Taylor (Whig, 29.7%) |
| 1852 | Franklin Pierce (Democratic) | Winfield Scott (Whig) | 8,557 | 46.1% | 18,547 | Winfield Scott (Whig, 26.9%) |
| 1856 | James Buchanan (Democratic) | Millard Fillmore (Whig) | 15,530 | 33.2% | 46,808 | Millard Fillmore (Whig, 33.4%) |
| 1860 | John Breckinridge (Democratic) | John Bell (Con'l Union) | 32,110 | 51.0% | 62,986 | John Bell (Con'l Union, 24.5%) |
| 1872 | Horace Greeley (Democratic) | Ulysses Grant (Republican) | 19,078 | 16.4% | 116,594 | Charles O'Conor (S-O Dem, 2.2%) |
| 1876 | Samuel Tilden (Democratic) | Rutherford Hayes (Republican) | 59,955 | 40.1% | 149,555 | — |
| 1880 | Winfield Hancock (Democratic) | James Garfield (Republican) | 98,535 | 40.8% | 241,726 | James Weaver (Greenback L, 11.3%) |
| 1884 | Grover Cleveland (Democratic) | James Blaine (Republican) | 132,168 | 40.6% | 325,305 | John St. John (Prohi, 1.1%) |
| 1888 | Grover Cleveland (Democratic) | Benjamin Harrison (Republican) | 146,461 | 41.0% | 357,513 | Alson Streeter (Union Labor, 8.2%) |
| 1892 | Grover Cleveland (Democratic) | James Weaver (People's) | 139,460 | 33.0% | 422,145 | James Weaver (People's, 23.6%) |
| 1896 | William Bryan (Democratic) | William McKinley (Republican) | 202,914 | 37.3% | 544,786 | John McA. Palmer (Nat Dem, 0.9%) |
| 1900 | William Bryan (Democratic) | William McKinley (Republican) | 136,791 | 32.3% | 423,706 | Wharton Barker (People's, 5.0%) |
| 1904 | Alton Parker (Democratic) | Theodore Roosevelt (Republican) | 115,958 | 49.5% | 234,008 | Thomas Watson (POP, 3.5%) |
| 1908 | William Bryan (Democratic) | William Taft (Republican) | 151,636 | 51.6% | 293,757 | Eugene Debs (SOC, 2.7%) |
| 1912 | Woodrow Wilson (Democratic) | Theodore Roosevelt (Prog) | 192,736 | 63.2% | 305,120 | Theodore Roosevelt (Prog, 9.5%) |
| 1916 | Woodrow Wilson (Democratic) | Charles Hughes (Republican) | 221,515 | 59.5% | 372,467 | Allan Benson (SOC, 5.1%) |
| 1920 | James Cox (Democratic) | Warren Harding (Republican) | 174,229 | 37.9% | 459,394 | James Ferguson (American, 10.4%) |
| 1924 | John Davis (Democratic) | Calvin Coolidge (Republican) | 354,582 | 53.9% | 657,509 | Robert La Follette (Prog, 6.5%) |
| 1928 | Herbert Hoover (Republican) | Alfred Smith (Democratic) | 26,004 | 3.7% | 708,999 | Norman Thomas (SOC, 0.1%) |
| 1932 | Franklin Roosevelt (Democratic) | Herbert Hoover (Republican) | 662,389 | 76.7% | 863,288 | Norman Thomas (SOC, 0.5%) |
| 1936 | Franklin Roosevelt (Democratic) | Alfred Landon (Republican) | 630,611 | 74.8% | 843,482 | William Lemke (Union, 0.4%) |
| 1940 | Franklin Roosevelt (Democratic) | Wendell Willkie (Republican) | 640,999 | 61.6% | 1,041,168 | Roger Babson (Prohi, 0.1%) |
| 1944 | Franklin Roosevelt (Democratic) | Thomas Dewey (Republican) | 630,180 | 62.1% | 1,014,892 | Claude Watson (Prohi, 0.1%) |
| 1948 | Harry Truman (Democratic) | Thomas Dewey (Republican) | 468,460 | 40.8% | 1,147,245 | J. Strom Thurmond (States' Rights Democratic, 9.3%) |
| 1952 | Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) | Adlai Stevenson (Democratic) | 133,650 | 6.4% | 2,075,946 | Stuart Hamblen (Prohi, 0.1%) |
| 1956 | Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) | Adlai Stevenson (Democratic) | 220,661 | 11.3% | 1,955,168 | T. Coleman Andrews (CON, 0.8%) |
| 1960 | John Kennedy (Democratic) | Richard Nixon (Republican) | 46,233 | 2.0% | 2,311,670 | Charles Sullivan (CON, 0.8%) |
| 1964 | Lyndon Johnson (Democratic) | Barry Goldwater (Republican) | 704,619 | 26.8% | 2,626,811 | Joseph Lightburn (CON, 0.2%) |
| 1968 | Hubert Humphrey (Democratic) | Richard Nixon (Republican) | 38,960 | 1.3% | 3,078,917 | George Wallace (Am. Ind., 19.0%) |
| 1972 | Richard Nixon (Republican) | George McGovern (Democratic) | 1,144,607 | 33.0% | 3,467,888 | Linda Jenness (Soc. Labor, 0.3%) |
| 1976 | Jimmy Carter (Democratic) | Gerald Ford (Republican) | 129,019 | 3.2% | 4,068,902 | Eugene McCarthy (IND, 0.5%) |
| 1980 | Ronald Reagan (Republican) | Jimmy Carter (Democratic) | 629,558 | 13.9% | 4,541,108 | John Anderson (NUC, 2.5%) |
| 1984 | Ronald Reagan (Republican) | Walter Mondale (Democratic) | 1,484,152 | 27.5% | 5,397,571 | Lyndon LaRouche (IND, 0.3%) |
| 1988 | George Bush (Republican) | Michael Dukakis (Democratic) | 684,081 | 12.6% | 5,427,410 | Ron Paul (LIB, 0.6%) |
| 1992 | George Bush (Republican) | Bill Clinton (Democratic) | 214,256 | 3.5% | 6,154,018 | Ross Perot (IND, 22.0%) |
| 1996 | Bob Dole (Republican) | Bill Clinton (Democratic) | 276,484 | 4.9% | 5,611,644 | Ross Perot (IND, 6.8%) |
| 2000 | George W. Bush (Republican) | Al Gore (Democratic) | 1,365,893 | 21.3% | 6,407,037 | Ralph Nader (GRN, 2.1%) |
| 2004 | George W. Bush (Republican) | John F. Kerry (Democratic) | 1,694,213 | 22.9% | 7,410,765 | Michael Badnarik (LIB, 0.5%) |
| 2008 | John McCain (Republican) | Barack Obama (Democratic) | 950,695 | 11.8% | 8,077,795 | Bob Barr (LIB, 0.7%) |
| 2012 | Mitt Romney (Republican) | Barack Obama (Democratic) | 1,261,719 | 15.8% | 7,993,851 | Gary Johnson (LIB, 1.1%) |
| 2016 | Donald J. Trump (Republican) | Hillary Clinton (Democratic) | 807,179 | 9.0% | 8,969,226 | Gary Johnson (LIB, 3.2%) |
| 2020 | Donald J. Trump (Republican) | Joseph R. Biden (Democratic) | 631,221 | 5.6% | 11,315,056 | Jo Jorgensen (LIB, 1.1%) |
| 2024 | Donald J. Trump (Republican) | Kamala D. Harris (Democratic) | 1,558,347 | 13.7% | 11,388,674 | Jill Stein (GRN, 0.7%) |
Statewide turnout, general elections with a registration figure on the books: 2020 66.73%, 2022 45.85%, 2024 61.15% of registered voters (Texas Secretary of State). County registration data does not go back far enough for a longer turnout series.
Method & source
What this shows: The two-party margin is the Democratic candidate’s statewide share minus the Republican candidate’s, in percentage points; it is defined for every year, including those before a Republican appeared on the Texas ballot. The largest-other series is the highest vote share won by any party other than those two. Winner, runner-up, and totals are read directly from the canvass.
Source: Texas Secretary of State certified county canvass reports for 2019 and later; the Secretary of State historical election results for 1848–2016. Figures before 2019 are statewide totals only — this dataset has no county-level presidential breakdown before 2020. Browse the underlying election pages.
Covers: 1848 through 2024 (43 general elections; 1864 and 1868 have no Texas result).