2012 United States presidential election in Texas


The 2012 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 6, 2012, as part of the 2012 United States presidential election in which all 50 states plus the District of Columbia participated. Texas voters chose 38 electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
Mitt Romney won the Lone Star State with 57.17%, over Barack Obama's 41.38%, a margin of 15.78%. As in past elections, President Obama and the Democrats dominated the Rio Grande Valley and won the major urban centers of Austin, El Paso, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston, but Republicans were able to overwhelm the urban vote by sweeping the vast rural areas and suburbs of Texas by large margins. In the process Romney beat George W. Bush's 2004 record of the most votes for a presidential candidate in Texas, a record later surpassed in 2016 by Donald Trump. By receiving 95.86% of the vote in King County, Romney also recorded the highest proportion of any county's vote cast for one candidate since Barry Goldwater received between 95.92 and 96.59% of the vote in seven Mississippi counties in 1964 – although this occurred when African-American majorities in these counties had been almost totally disenfranchised for seven-and-a-half decades.

General election

Candidate Ballot Access:
Write-In Candidate Access:

By county

Democratic primary

The 2012 Texas Democratic Primary was held on May 29, 2012. Incumbent Barack Obama, who was running for the nomination without any major opposition, won the primary with 88.18% of the vote, and was awarded all of Texas' 287 delegates to the 2012 Democratic National Convention.

Republican primary

The Republican primary was held May 29, 2012.
152 delegates were chosen, for a total of 155 delegates to go to the national convention.
The election was originally scheduled to take place on Super Tuesday, March 6. Due to litigation over the state's redistricting following the 2010 United States Census, it was rescheduled for April 3. That date also became uncertain and the primary was expected to be held, at the earliest, in late May 2012, with both May 22 and May 29 being proposed. U.S. District Court judge Xavier Rodriguez, one of the three judges overseeing the litigation, had suggested a June 26 date for the election. Finally, on March 1, 2012, the court issued an order setting the date of the primary to May 29, 2012.