Former President Donald Trump easily defeated Nikki Haley to win the Texas Republican primary for president Tuesday, all but cementing his status as the GOP nominee in November.
On Wednesday Haley suspended her campaign. She was the last major challenger to Trump’s GOP presidential nomination.
President Joe Biden prevailed over minor competition in the state’s Democratic primary, putting the nation another step closer to a repeat of the 2020 election.
In Texas, one of 15 states holding Super Tuesday primaries or caucuses for Republicans, Trump collected all 161 delegates after sweeping the vast majority of endorsements from the state’s leading Republicans. The Associated Press projected both Trump and Biden winners of the state’s primary within minutes of 8 p.m., when the last polls in the state closed.
Biden had about 85 percent of the vote with 62 percent of polling locations reporting; and Trump was maintaining a 60 percentage point lead over Haley and taking nearly 80 percent of the vote.
Trump’s overwhelming victory came as he flexed his political muscle by making endorsements in several down-ballot contests in Texas. With votes still being counted, it was unclear how many candidates Trump’s coattails pulled over the finish line.
“President Trump is certainly very popular among the activist base, and then the party has just solidified around him,” said Steve Munisteri, former chairman of the Texas Republican Party who served as the principal deputy director of the Office of Public Liaison under Trump.
Munisteri said presidential contenders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had planned to make inroads in Texas, but that didn’t happen, leaving Haley as the last major candidate opposing Trump.
“Nobody really ever seemed to get to the point of mounting a serious, credible challenge,” Munisteri said.
Trump’s Texas triumph was a testament to his campaign’s yearslong effort to mine support in a state that’s been critical to his fundraising and political goals. Trump also traveled to Texas to kick off his presidential campaign with a March 2023 rally in Waco.
Trump’s Texas campaign is being led, once again, by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Other top supporters include Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller. In his previous campaigns, Trump’s donors boasted that he had raised more big-dollar contributions in Texas than any other state.
“Trump’s team has done a great job making sure that they’re on the ground and their network is solidified behind Trump,” said Republican political consultant Matthew Langston. “They did that on day one.”
The former president didn’t forget his friends in the weeks before the Texas primary. Trump endorsed candidates opposing seven House Republicans who voted last year to impeach Paxton, and Trump also supported the candidate trying to unseat House Speaker Dade Phelan, who has emerged as a chief nemesis to Patrick over the past two legislative sessions.
“He went deep, including county judges and folks like that,” Langston said of Trump’s Texas endorsements over the past two election cycles. “There’s not been any other candidate that has been able to play or even attempt to shake Trump’s support here.”
In contrast, Haley’s 41-member Texas leadership team was filled with former Republican elected officials, moderates and anti-Trump conservatives. Current elected officials backing Haley included Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker and state Rep. Kyle Kacal, R-College Station.
Haley made a last-ditch effort to contest Texas. On election eve she held a rally at Tannahill’s Tavern & Music Hall in Fort Worth. That came after a Feb. 15 rally at Gilley’s Dallas.
Trump didn’t do much retail campaigning after his Waco rally, save for widely publicized trips to the southern border with Mexico to promote his policies on immigration and criticize Biden’s handling of border-related issues.
He has turned much of his attention to Biden, and the rematch could bring some Texas intrigue.
Trump in 2020 won Texas by 6 percentage points, the lowest margin of a Republican against a Democrat since 1976, when Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to win in the Lone Star State’s electoral votes. Though Trump beat Biden statewide, he lost in several major counties, including Tarrant County, a longtime Republican stronghold. Despite Trump’s Tarrant County woes, countywide GOP candidates won their races.
“We can expect another close statewide margin, and that’s helpful to the other races on the ballot,” said state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Grand Prairie. “I don’t know that either campaign is going to spend a lot of resources in Texas, but in terms of the results, I expect it to be a relatively close single-digit margin like we saw in 2020.”
Munisteri said Biden is underwater in Texas polls but agreed the presidential race would impact down-ballot contests, including the race between Republican U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and the winner of the Democratic primary.
It’s a question of which presidential candidate has the longer Texas coattails.
“If Trump wins, which I expect him to do, it’s certainly possible for the overall turnout that race generates to be a significant factor on how Cruz does,” Munisteri said.
Langston, the GOP consultant, said he expected some Democratic candidates to run from Biden in the general elections, while Republican candidates embrace Trump.
“Texas is still deeply red,” Langston said. “There’s always the conversation of it turning more purple, but in the presidential election here, anyone in the Republican Party distancing themselves from Trump is not going to see any benefit at all.”
