Mark Updegrove interviews former President Jimmy Carter at the LBJ Library on April 8, 2014.
Mark Updegrove interviews former President Jimmy Carter at the LBJ Library on April 8, 2014. Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman/Pool

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with the canvassed results of the 2016 presidential election.

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 10 elections since then, the state has been a reliable Republican stronghold. 

On Tuesday, Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 9 points in Texas on his way to winning the 2016 presidential election. Though Trump’s margin of victory wasn’t as large as those in the most recent Texas contests, it’s not the smallest margin for a Republican since Carter’s win.

In 1992, Democrat Bill 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.

 

 

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Annie Daniel was a news apps developer at The Texas Tribune from 2014 to 2018, where she where she developed interactives, analyzed datasets and created graphics. She graduated from the University of North...

Aman Batheja was a political reporter and editor for the Tribune from 2012 to 2019. Previously he worked for eight years at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, most of that time covering state and local politics....