198

The number of counties where U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-El Paso) received a higher percent of the vote than 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton (D).

O’Rourke received 48.3% of the vote statewide, based on unofficial returns, a 5.0% improvement over Clinton’s 43.2% in 2016. He improved upon her performance across much of the state except, somewhat surprisingly, heavily Hispanic/Latino counties in South Texas.

O'Rourke's Vote Percentage Compared to Clinton's

Some of the largest swings toward O’Rourke relative to Clinton occurred in Hays (11.1%), Williamson (9.2%), Brazos (8.8%), Travis (8.5%), Denton (8.4%), Collin (7.6%), Tarrant (6.8%) and Lubbock (6.7%) Cos. Of those, O’Rourke won only Hays, Tarrant, Travis and Williamson Cos. In fact, O’Rourke won only 21 of the counties where he received a greater share of the vote than Clinton.

O’Rourke won 11 of the 56 counties where he received a lower share of the vote than Clinton. Some of the largest swings away from O’Rourke occurred in Maverick (-4.8%), Webb (-3.2%), Willacy (-3.1%) and Cameron (-1.9%) Cos. He won all four of those counties with about 70% of the vote.

O’Rourke received more votes than Clinton in 80 counties on his way to receiving about 140K more votes than Clinton statewide. His biggest increases over Clinton came in Travis (48K), Collin (24K), Tarrant (24K), Denton (23K) and Williamson (20K) Cos. In six counties, he received just one or two more votes than Clinton: King (6 vs. 5), Lamb (773 vs. 771), Loving (6 vs. 4), McMullen (41 vs. 40), Motley (41 vs. 40) and Schleicher (209 vs. 208) Cos.

He received the fewest votes relative to Clinton in Harris (-15K), Hidalgo (-15K), Cameron (-11K), Webb (-7K) and Jefferson (-5K) Cos.

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