Texas backed President Trump, contributing 38 electoral college votes to his total. Republicans have dominated the state for many years but that's slowly changing as the state's demographics shift: Each year, hundreds of thousands of people relocate to Texas, many of them Democrats from states like California, Florida, New York and Illinois, and tens of thousands of young Latinos turn 18 and become eligible to vote.
Barack Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon B. Johnson to carry the state’s biggest urban counties. Obama lost Texas by nearly 16 percentage points in 2012. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016, cut that margin to 9 percentage points.
In 2018, Democrat Beto O'Rourke challenged Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and lost by fewer than 3 percentage points, giving Democrats hope that they could compete statewide. That same year, Texas Democrats flipped two congressional seats and picked up 12 seats in the Texas House.
Ahead of 2020, Democrats hoped to have even greater success and millions of dollars poured into the state for advertising and organizing.
The Post is publishing preliminary results from national and state exit polls that allow readers to explore demographic trends in the 2020 vote. These surveys randomly sample voters in three ways: in-person, as they exited voting places on or before Election Day, and by telephone, through a survey of more than 25,000 early voters, to help account for the huge increase of votes cast early.
Containing the coronavirus now, even if it hurts the economy47% of voters
15%
84%
Rebuilding the economy now, even if it hurts efforts to contain the coronavirus47%
84%
15%
Senate exit poll
In the Texas U.S. Senate race, the incumbent, John Cornyn, a Republican, defeated MJ Hegar, a Democrat. Cornyn has represented Texas in the Senate since 2002.
Who won each group in Texas
Groups that candidates won by six or more percentage points
Containing the coronavirus now, even if it hurts the economy47% of voters
80%
19%
Rebuilding the economy now, even if it hurts efforts to contain the coronavirus47%
13%
85%
Methodology
Preliminary national and state exit poll results from interviews of randomly selected voters as they exited voting places across the country on Nov. 3, as well as from voters exiting early voting locations. Early voters were also reached through a telephone survey. The polls were conducted by Edison Research for the National Election Pool, The Washington Post and other media organizations. Results are weighted to match vote tallies by region and to correct for differential participation by subgroup.
Donald Trump
Joe Biden