Every Cooke County precinct shifts toward Democrats as Gainesville's Precinct 2 votes blue

Republicans won every contested race on Cooke County's ballot Tuesday, but every one of the county's 17 voting precincts moved toward Democrats compared with 2024, and one Gainesville precinct voted for the Democrat in the U.S. Senate race.

Precinct 2 gave Democrat James Talarico 489 votes to Republican Ken Paxton's 421, according to unofficial county results. Two years ago the same precinct backed Republican Ted Cruz for Senate by about 28 points and Donald Trump for president by about 36. In the governor's race, Precinct 2 split almost evenly: Democrat Gina Hinojosa 466, Gov. Greg Abbott 461.

Countywide, Paxton carried Cooke with 73.6% of the vote to Talarico's 24.3%, a margin of about 49 points. That is roughly 13 points closer than Cruz's Senate margin here in 2024 and about 18 points closer than Trump's.

A statewide swing

The county's move came inside a larger one. Statewide, the Associated Press called the governor's race for Hinojosa, and Abbott conceded Tuesday night. NBC News projects Talarico the winner of the Senate race. In the Texas Secretary of State's count at 11:35 p.m., with 46% of precincts reporting, Talarico led Paxton by about 12 points, and Democrats led in every statewide race on the ballot. Those numbers are partial and will change as counties finish reporting.

In 2024, Cruz won Texas by about 8.5 points and Trump by about 13.7, according to the state's certified results. On the current count, the statewide Senate margin has moved about 20 points toward Democrats in two years. Cooke County moved about 13 points on the same comparison: a smaller swing, from a far more Republican starting point.

Where the shift was biggest

The three precincts that moved most are the three that sit inside Gainesville city limits, the only ones that voted on the city's charter amendments.

Precinct 2 moved about 36 points toward Democrats in the Senate race. Precincts 1C and 4C each moved about 20 points but still went Republican, by 17 and 25 points. Outside the city, Precinct 11 moved the most, about 17 points. The smallest moves were in Precincts 22 and 17, about 4 points each. Precinct 17 remained the most Republican in the county, where Paxton won by about 80 points.

Turnout shaped the picture. Cooke County cast 17,331 ballots, 54.8% of its 31,636 registered voters, against more than 20,000 votes in the 2024 presidential race. Precinct 2 had the county's lowest turnout, 945 ballots from 2,669 registered voters, about 35%. A midterm electorate is smaller and different from a presidential one, so part of any swing reflects who voted as well as how they voted.

The rest of the ballot

Every statewide Republican carried Cooke County, by margins of about 49 to 59 points. Abbott won 76.4% to Hinojosa's 22.1%. The Senate race was the closest statewide contest in the county; the Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 race was the least close.

U.S. Rep. Brandon Gill won the county's share of the 26th District with 13,336 votes to Democrat Steven Shook's 3,505. State Rep. David Spiller carried House District 68 here with 13,379 votes to Democrat Jasmine Henderson's 3,482.

Every county office on the ballot was uncontested. County Judge Karla Metzler received 14,259 votes, the most of any candidate in the county. County Surveyor Delbert West, a Democrat, was re-elected without an opponent with 9,033 votes.

In Gainesville, voters approved 15 of the 16 city charter amendments. The one they rejected, Proposition E, would have let the city council appoint the municipal judge instead of electing the judge; it failed with 74.8% voting against. Term limits for the mayor and council, Proposition B, passed with 90.7%. In the Valley View ISD, voters turned down the district's tax rate ratification, 1,414 to 616.

All results are unofficial until the county canvass.

See it for yourself

Our election results page has every race on the Cooke County ballot, precinct by precinct, with the maps used in this story. Pick any race, switch between who led, the shift since 2024, and turnout, and save any view as an image to share.