-8.72 and +8.63

Difference, in percent of the vote, between how Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio performed in Dallas Co. compared to the state as a whole, respectively.

Ted Cruz won Dallas Co. in Tuesday’s primary election with 35% of the vote, well below his statewide average, Marco Rubio received 26% of the Dallas Co. vote, nearly 9 points better than his statewide average, to claim second place in the county over Donald Trump (25%).

Eight Texas house districts are currently represented by Republicans. Cruz won six of those districts, and Rubio won two. Trump finished no better than second place in any of them. Their win-place-show order in each House district reveals some information about how the attitudes of primary voters vary from district to district and help explain how they could send both Matt Rinaldi (R-Irving) and Jason Villalba (R-Dallas) back to the House.

John Kasich nearly doubled his statewide showing in Dallas Co., where he received 8% of the vote, ranging from 3.5% in HD113 to 12.1% in HD114 and 12.3% in HD108. He finished fourth in seven of the Republican-held House districts and fifth behind Ben Carson in HD113.

If one were to classify Rubio and Kasich as “establishment” candidates, and classify Cruz and Trump as “outsider” candidates, then the differences between some of these Republican-held districts become quite stark.

Villalba’s HD114 leans slightly toward the outsiders, but Rinaldi’s HD115 is significantly more inclined to support the outsiders. It made Bennett Ratliff’s comeback attempt that much more difficult. He received 47% of the vote against Rinaldi, nearly 9 points fewer than Villalba in HD114. That was just about the difference between how the outsider candidates fared in HD114 (49%) and HD115 (59%).