Editing Jim Wells County, Texas (section)

==Government and politics==
[[File:Jim Wells Texas.jpg|thumb|[[James B. Wells Jr.|Jim Wells]], longtime Democratic political boss and namesake of Jim Wells County.]]

Located in South Texas, Jim Wells County is part of the oldest Democratic stronghold in the entire United States, a region that has consistently voted for Democrats since the days of [[Woodrow Wilson]]. The Jim Wells County Democratic Party has maintained its influence in the county despite massive demographic changes due to [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]], the collapse of [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] and [[poll tax]]es, and mass immigration from Mexico.<ref>Sullivan, Robert David; [http://www.americamagazine.org/content/unconventional-wisdom/how-red-and-blue-map-evolved-over-past-century ‘How the Red and Blue Map Evolved Over the Past Century’]; ''America Magazine'' in ''The National Catholic Review''; June 29, 2016</ref> The only Republicans to win the county in presidential elections since its creation are [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] in [[1956 United States presidential election|1956]], [[Richard Nixon]] in [[United States presidential election in Texas, 1972|his 1972 landslide]] and [[Donald Trump]] in [[2020 United States presidential election|2020]] and [[2024 United States presidential election|2024]]. Since 2004, Jim Wells County has become slightly less Democratic than it was during the late twentieth century. Despite this shift, the Democratic nominee won at least 53.77 percent of the county's vote in every presidential election from 1976 through 2016. In 2020, the county ended its streak of Democratic victories when it was won by Donald Trump by a 10% margin.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2020&fips=48249&f=0&off=0&elect=0|title=2020 Presidential General Election Results – Texas: Jim Wells County|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=January 17, 2020}}</ref>

In the [[Texas gubernatorial election, 2018|2018 gubernatorial election]], Republican [[Greg Abbott]] won 52.04% of the vote in Jim Wells County, becoming the first member of his party to win the county in a race for a state office.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2018&fips=48249&f=0&off=5&elect=0|title=2018 Gubernatorial General Election Results - Jim Wells County, TX|last=Leip|first=David|website=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}</ref> In the same election, Democrat [[Beto O'Rourke]] won the county in the [[United States Senate election in Texas, 2018|Senate contest]] with 53.85% of the vote.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/statesub.php?year=2018&fips=48249&f=0&off=3&elect=0&class=1|title=2018 Senatorial General Election Results - Jim Wells County, TX|last=Leip|first=David|website=Deve Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections}}</ref>

{{PresHead|place=Jim Wells County, Texas|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=February 21, 2021}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|7,636|5,577|55|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|7,453|6,119|110|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|5,420|6,694|265|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|4,598|6,492|76|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|4,841|6,706|65|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Democratic|5,817|6,824|50|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Democratic|4,498|7,418|107|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Democratic|2,989|7,116|467|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|3,311|7,812|1,438|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Democratic|4,335|8,495|56|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Democratic|5,896|7,795|24|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Democratic|4,606|7,267|140|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Democratic|3,547|7,961|42|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|5,283|4,404|11|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Democratic|2,827|6,304|919|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|1,988|6,849|0|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|2,773|5,330|9|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|3,348|2,752|22|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|3,592|3,745|2|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|1,402|3,781|116|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|1,113|1,908|170|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|914|2,105|7|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|338|1,691|9|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|162|1,449|10|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|423|747|3|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|213|654|125|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|169|304|51|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|100|335|39|Texas}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|24|241|87|Texas}}
{{U.S. SenHead|place=Jim Wells County, Texas|Seat=1|source=<ref>{{cite news |title=2024 Senate Election (Official Returns) |website=Commonwealth of Texas by county |date=November 5, 2024 |access-date=December 5, 2024 |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/texas-senate-results}}</ref>}}
<!-- U.S. SenRow should be {{U.S. SenRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{U.S. SenRow|2024|Republican|6,773|5,895|292|Texas}}
{{U.S. SenFoot}}

===1948 U.S. Senate election===
{{main|1948 United States Senate election in Texas}}
Jim Wells County is known as the home of the "[[Box 13 scandal]]", the infamous [[ballot box]] that gave [[Lyndon Baines Johnson]] an 87-vote edge out of 988,295 cast over popular former governor [[Coke Stevenson]] in the Democratic primary election. It was later demonstrated that 200 votes, for Johnson, were "stuffed" into the ballot box after the polls closed.<ref>{{cite book |last=Caro|first=Robert|author-link=Robert Caro |year=1991|isbn=067973371X|title=[[The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent]]}}</ref> Johnson went on to win the election.