Editing Washington County, Texas (section)

==Politics==
Since the 1940s, Washington County has been powerfully Republican, with the only Democratic presidential candidate to carry it since [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]’s 1936 landslide being Hill Country native [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in 1964. Since 1980, no Democrat has gained more than 40 percent of the county’s vote.

{{PresHead|place=Washington 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=April 4, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Republican|14,020|4,058|187|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2020|Republican|12,959|4,261|229|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2016|Republican|10,945|3,382|505|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2012|Republican|10,857|3,381|159|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2008|Republican|10,176|4,034|167|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|9,597|3,389|77|Texas}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|8,645|2,996|168|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|6,319|3,460|640|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1992|Republican|5,817|3,283|1,753|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|6,041|2,960|36|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|6,506|2,483|7|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|4,821|2,518|156|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|3,820|2,635|45|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|3,862|1,323|13|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|3,244|1,686|677|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|2,019|2,938|5|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1960|Republican|2,613|1,864|12|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1956|Republican|2,975|933|15|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1952|Republican|3,519|1,354|3|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1948|Republican|1,904|1,647|191|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1944|Dixiecrat|534|1,387|2,104|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1940|Republican|1,868|1,449|0|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|176|1,993|4|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|99|3,443|3|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|275|2,491|0|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|496|3,568|73|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1920|American|684|796|1,740|Texas}}
{{PresRow|1916|Republican|1,306|1,119|6|Texas}}
{{PresFoot|1912|Democratic|546|1,111|198|Texas}}

The GOP was competitive in the county during the [[Third Party System]] and to a smaller extent during the “System of 1896” era, as the county then had a sizeable freedman population, but the county became typically “[[Solid South]]” Democratic for a brief period once that freedman population [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction Era|was completely disfranchised]]. Following the [[New Deal]], the almost entirely White electorate of Washington County – which was being gradually stripped of its freedman population by [[Great Migration (African American)|the Great Migration]] – was one of the first to turn against FDR, being one of just 7 Texas counties to vote for [[Wendell Wilkie]] in 1940. Washington was one of 11 Texas counties to vote in 1920 for American Party candidate [[James E. Ferguson]], and the solitary county to give a majority to the conservative “[[Texas Regulars]]”, which were a predecessor to the numerous “[[Dixiecrat]]” movements of the following two decades, in the 1944 election.