Nearly 40K more Travis Co. residents cast straight-ticket Democratic votes this year than in 2012, and Democrats pushed their advantage in straight-ticket voting to at least 14K in five of the six state House districts and at least 21K in three of them.
Republicans hold a straight-ticket advantage only in HD47, the lone Republican-held seat among the Travis Co. House delegation. Rep. Paul Workman (R-Austin) won re-election by 12 points even though Democrats cut his party’s 2012 straight-ticket advantage nearly in half. Just over 7K more straight-ticket Democratic votes were cast in HD47 this year than in 2012. The gain in straight-ticket Republican votes was just over 1K. More than 40% of all straight-ticket Republican votes cast in the county came from HD47.
President-elect Trump narrowly carried HD47 over Hillary Clinton by just over 2K votes. Clinton won 57% of the full-ballot vote head-to-head against Trump in the district. Workman also received 57% of the full-ballot vote head-to-head against his opponent, which translates into roughly one out of every seven full-ballot voters choosing Clinton and Workman.
Straight-ticket Vote Advantage by House District
HD49 – Democrats +26,743 (up 9,756 from 2012)
HD51 – Democrats +22,276 (up 5,865)
HD46 – Democrats +21,186 (up 3,557)
HD48 – Democrats +15,758 (up 8,061)
HD50 – Democrats +13,496 (up 6,707)
HD47 – Republicans +6,051 (down 5,982)
The growth in straight-ticket Democratic votes was strongest in HD49, currently held by the retiring Rep. Elliott Naishtat (D-Austin) and won by Rep.-elect Gina Hinojosa (D-Austin) over a Libertarian opponent. More than 9,600 more straight-ticket Democratic votes were cast by HD49 residents than four years ago.
In HD46, Rep. Dawnna Dukes (D-Austin) coasted to re-election despite ongoing ethics woes and a pledge to resign prior to the start of the legislative session thanks in large part to a 21K-vote advantage in straight-ticket voting. She also received 69% of the full-ballot vote head-to-head against her Republican challenger. The increase in Democrats’ straight-ticket voting advantage was the smallest among Travis Co. districts.
Countywide, 52% of all votes cast were straight-ticket Democratic (36%) or Republican (16%) votes, lowest among the 20 counties with the most registered voters. An additional 1.6% of votes cast were minor party straight-ticket votes.
Straight-ticket Vote Share in Top 20 Counties
77.5% – Fort Bend Co.
70.8% – Montgomery Co.
68.4% – Hidalgo Co.
67.6% – Harris Co.
67.3% – Dallas Co.
67.1% – Jefferson Co.
67.0% – Tarrant Co.
65.2% – Denton Co.
63.6% – Collin Co.
63.1% – McLennan Co.
62.7% – Brazoria Co.
62.6% – Galveston Co.
61.9% – El Paso Co.
60.1% – Bell Co.
57.4% – Bexar Co.
57.2% – Williamson Co.
56.5% – Cameron Co.
56.2% – Nueces Co.
55.6% – Lubbock Co.
53.9% – Travis Co.
Measured as percent of all votes cast for president for the 20 counties with the most registered voters, including straight-ticket votes cast for minor parties.
Countywide, Democrats enjoyed a 93K-vote advantage in straight-ticket voting, up from 53K four years ago. That increase was the second largest in the state behind only Harris Co. (65K).
Nearly 100K more voters were registered in Travis Co. in 2016 than in 2012, and 81K more votes were cast for president. A significant number of those new voters – up to half of them – voted a straight-ticket Democratic ballot, making blue Travis Co. significantly bluer.
