Editing Williamson County, Texas (section)

==Government and politics==
[[File:Williamson County precincts.gif|thumb|right|300px|Williamson County Precinct Map&nbsp;– ''Image courtesy of the Williamson County Commissioners Court'']]

{{external links|date=September 2020}}
The [https://web.archive.org/web/20110723142414/http://www.williamson-county.org/CountyDepartments/Commissioners/tabid/207/Default.aspx Commissioners Court] is the overall governing and management body of Williamson County, and is responsible for all budgetary decisions in addition to setting the tax rate each year. Among its duties is the administration of all county business, including the building and maintenance of county roads and bridges. Commissioners' courts are governing bodies of [[Local government in the United States|county government]] in several US states, including Texas. The principal functions of the commissioners' court are legislative and executive. Although called courts, commissioners' courts generally exercise only limited judicial powers. The commissioners' court consists of five members. The county judge presides as chairman, and is elected every four years by voters countywide. Four commissioners are elected by single-member precincts every four years.

=== County government ===

==== Williamson County elected officials ====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Position
! style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Name
! style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Party
|-
| style="background:black;" |&nbsp;
| County Judge
| Steven Snell
| Unknown 
|-
| style="background:blue;" |&nbsp;
| Commissioner, Precinct 1
| Terry Cook
| [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Commissioner, Precinct 2
| Cynthia Long
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Commissioner, Precinct 3
| Valerie Covey
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Commissioner, Precinct 4
| Russ Boles
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| District Attorney 
| Shawn Dick
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| District Clerk
| Lisa David
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| County Attorney
| Doyle Hobbs Jr.
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| County Clerk
| Nancy Rister
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Sheriff
| Matthew Lindemann 
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Tax Assessor-Collector
| Larry Gaddes 
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Treasurer
| Scott Heselmeyer
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:blue;" |&nbsp;
| Constable, Precinct 1
| Mickey Chance
| [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Constable, Precinct 2
| Jeff Anderson
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Constable, Precinct 3
| Kevin Wilkie
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| Constable, Precinct 4
| Paul Leal
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
|-
|}

===Congressional and state representation===
In recent decades, Williamson County has been a strongly [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] county. Before the 2018 elections, every federal and state elected official from the county was a Republican. It is in Texas Senate District 5, and is represented by State Senator [[Charles Schwertner]] (R). Williamson County includes three Texas House of Representatives Districts: 20, 52, and 136. District 20 is represented by Republican [[Terry Wilson (politician)|Terry Wilson]], 52 by Caroline Harris, and 136 by Democrat [[John Bucy III]].

==== United States Congress ====

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Representatives
! style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Name
! style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | Party
! style="text-align:center; vertical-align:bottom;" | First elected
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| District 10
| [[Michael McCaul]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2004
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| District 17
| [[Pete Sessions]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2020
|-
| style="background:red;" |&nbsp;
| District 31
| [[John Carter (Texas politician)|John Carter]]
| [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]
| 2002
|-
| style="background:blue;" |&nbsp;
| District 37
| [[Lloyd Doggett]]
| [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]]
| 1994
|-
|}

===Presidential election results===
Williamson County is currently a swing county since the late 2010s. The county votes well to the left of the state as a whole.

It was once a solidly Democratic county. In [[1976 United States presidential election in Texas|1976 election]], it voted for President [[Jimmy Carter]] by a higher percentage (55%) than did voters in [[Travis County]] (52%). In [[1980 United States presidential election in Texas|1980 election]], however, the county swung dramatically to support [[Ronald Reagan]], giving him 56% of the vote, exceeding Carter's 1976 total. In subsequent years, the county became increasingly Republican, following a pattern similar to those of other suburban Texas counties. In [[2004 United States presidential election in Texas|2004 election]], President [[George W. Bush]] won 68% of the vote in Williamson County. [[John McCain]] received 55% of the vote to [[Barack Obama]]'s 42% in the [[2008 United States presidential election in Texas|2008 election]]. In [[2012 United States presidential election in Texas|2012 election]], Republican [[Mitt Romney]] defeated Obama, 59% to 38%. In [[2016 United States presidential election in Texas|2016 election]], [[Donald Trump]] beat [[Hillary Clinton]], 51%–41%.

However, the county narrowly swung Democratic in [[2020 United States presidential election in Texas|2020]], with [[Joe Biden]] winning a plurality over Trump, 49% to 48%.<ref name="wilco">{{Cite web|url=https://apps.wilco.org/elections/results/default.aspx?e=346930|title=Election Results|website=apps.wilco.org}}</ref> The county narrowly swung back into the Trump column for the [[2024 United States presidential election in Texas|2024]] election, thereby voting for the presidential election winner in 2016, 2020, and 2024.

Democrats [[Beto O'Rourke]] and [[Colin Allred]] won the county against [[Ted Cruz]] in [[2018 United States Senate election in Texas|2018]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Essig |first=Chris |last2=Murphy |first2=Ryan |last3=Formby |first3=Brandon |date=2018-11-07 |title=Where Ted Cruz's close victory over Beto O'Rourke stands among Texas' historical election results |url=https://www.texastribune.org/2018/11/07/ted-cruz-beto-orourke-texas-history-election-results/ |access-date=2024-04-27 |website=The Texas Tribune |language=en}}</ref> and [[2024 United States Senate election in Texas|2024]]. [[James Talarico]] and [[John Bucy III]] both defeating Republican incumbents to win election to the [[2022 Texas House of Representatives election|2022]] in districts mostly in Williamson County.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2019-05-10/turning-williamson-county-a-bluer-shade-of-purple/|title=Turning Williamson County a Bluer Shade of Purple|website=www.austinchronicle.com}}</ref> However, in the same [[2020 United States Senate election in Texas|2020 election]] election, county voters reelected Republican [[John Cornyn]] to the U.S. Senate as well as Republican [[John Carter (Texas politician)|John Carter]] to the U.S. House of Representatives.<ref name="wilco" /> Republican governor [[Greg Abbott]] won the county in [[2022 Texas gubernatorial election|2022]] by only one point, further showing that county has moved away from being safely Republican and become a competitive battleground.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khatib |first=Alexa Ura, Caroline Covington and Jade |date=November 11, 2022 |title=Republicans rebounded in some suburban counties that had been drifting blue |url=https://www.texastribune.org/2022/11/11/texas-voter-turnout-suburbs/ |access-date=July 16, 2023 |website=The Texas Tribune |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=November 8, 2022 |title=Texas Governor Election Results |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/11/08/us/elections/results-texas-governor.html |access-date=July 16, 2023 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

Election turnout reflects the county's tremendous growth. In [[1960 United States presidential election in Texas|1960]], only 7,870 votes were cast, compared to 289,555 in 2020.
{{PresHead|place=Williamson County, Texas|source=<ref>{{cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|first=David|last=Leip|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=May 9, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180323225526/https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/|archive-date=March 23, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|155,310|147,766|6,439|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|139,729|143,795|6,644|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|104,175|84,468|16,016|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|97,006|61,875|4,923|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|88,323|67,691|3,152|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|83,284|43,117|1,797|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|65,041|26,591|4,303|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|36,836|24,175|5,511|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|26,208|19,437|15,609|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|27,322|19,589|319|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|25,774|9,911|99|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|15,035|10,408|1,218|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|7,481|9,355|174|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|6,998|3,806|63|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|2,923|5,528|1,672|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|1,766|7,430|6|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|2,429|5,410|31|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|2,947|4,402|18|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|3,646|5,010|7|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|1,094|5,638|294|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|1,239|5,284|908|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|1,714|5,944|13|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|375|4,995|13|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|418|6,783|13|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|1,833|3,689|9|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|934|6,324|320|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|819|2,677|1,555|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|656|2,701|94|Texas}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|246|2,014|310|Texas}}