United States presidential election in Texas, 1996

United States presidential election in Texas, 1996

November 5, 1996

Nominee Bob Dole Bill Clinton Ross Perot Party Republican Democratic Reform Home state Kansas Arkansas Texas Running mate Jack Kemp Al Gore Pat Choate Electoral vote 32 0 0 Popular vote 2,736,167 2,459,683 378,537 Percentage 48.76% 43.83% 6.75%

County Results   Clinton—80-90%   Clinton—70-80%   Clinton—60-70%   Clinton—50-60%   Clinton—40-50%   Dole—40-50%   Dole—50-60%   Dole—60-70%   Dole—70-80%

President before election Bill Clinton Democratic Elected President Bill Clinton Democratic

The 1996 United States presidential election in Texas took place on November 5, 1996. All 50 states and the District of Columbia, were part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Texas voters chose 32 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the President and Vice President.

Texas was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.^[1]

Texas weighed in for this election as 3% more Republican than the national average.

Partisan background

The presidential election of 1996 was a very multi-partisan election for Texas, with more than 7% of the electorate voting for third-party candidates. This is the last election in Texas where you see many rural counties (including a large Democratic stronghold along the border with Louisiana) voting for the Democratic Party, and one of the last ones where the populated counties, such as Houston's Harris County, voted mainly for the Republican candidate. Since the Presidential election of 1996, this demographic trend in Texas has reversed to its current form of urban Democrats and rural Republicans, in the state.

In his second bid for the Presidency, Ross Perot led the newly reformed Reform Party to gain over 6% of the votes in Texas, and to pull in support nationally as the most popular third-party candidate to run for United States Presidency in recent times.

Results

United States presidential election in Texas, 1996
Party		Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Republican	Bob Dole	2,736,167	48.76%	32
	Democratic	Bill Clinton	2,459,683	43.83%	0
	Reform	Ross Perot	378,537	6.75%	0
	Libertarian	Harry Browne	20,256	0.36%	0
	Taxpayers’	Howard Phillips	20,256	0.13%	0
	Green	Ralph Nader (write-in)	4,810	0.09%	0
	Natural Law	Dr. John Hagelin	4,422	0.08%	0
	Other write-ins		297	0.01%	0
Totals			5,611,644	100.00%	32
Voter Turnout (Voting age/Registered)

See also

• Yugoslav Wars
• Presidency of Bill Clinton

References

1. "Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections". Uselectionatlas.org. Retrieved 2013-07-21.