1860 United States presidential election in Texas

The 1860 United States presidential election in Texas was held on November 6, 1860. State voters chose four electors to represent the state in the Electoral College, which chose the president and vice president. Soon after this election, Texas seceded from the United States in March 1861 and joined the Confederate States of America. It would not participate in the following elections in 1864 and 1868. The state would not be readmitted into the Union until 1870 and would not participate in another presidential election until 1872. This would stand as the best performance of any Presidential candidate in Texas history for over 65 years, until Woodrow Wilson (76.92%) surpassed it in 1916. Other than Wilson, only Franklin D. Roosevelt exceeded Breckenridge's percent of the vote, though he did so in three of his four runs: in 1932 (88.06%), 1936 (87.08%), and 1940 (80.92%). This leaves Breckinridge's performance as the overall 5th best performance in Texas presidential history.

Background Before candidates were even nominated, Texas, as the frontier of slavery in the United States, was always recognized as extremely important to the extension of slavery, and nefarious tales of abolition plots there were common in the Southern media. Texas delegates to the first Democratic National Convention refused to accept “Northern Democrat” Stephen A. Douglas′ platform of “popular sovereignty” — locally called “squatter sovereignty” — because they believed that it would prevent the expansion of slavery in the same manner as the Republicans’ “free soil” policy. Texas was among the most insistent states upon a platform that guaranteed expansion of slavery into the territories and consequently the state Democratic party unanimously supported the nomination of Southern Democrat nominee John C. Breckinridge. Douglas, indeed, had so little support amongst the Texas electorate that his supporters had agreed to transfer their allegiance to Constitutional Union candidate John Bell,Baggett, James Alex; The Scalawags: Southern Dissenters in the Civil War and Reconstruction, p. 38 although their ultimate goal was to support whomever stood the best chance of beating Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, who did not have significant ballot distribution in Texas.

Analysis With the state media overwhelmingly behind him, Texas overwhelmingly voted for Breckinridge by a margin of 50.97 points. Breckinridge won 75.47 percent of the vote, making Texas his strongest state. Despite the allegiance of Douglas supporters, Bell carried only three counties in the state and it is sometimes thought that the German-American abolitionists in such counties as Gillespie refrained from visiting the polls. Besides the counties he won, Bell only exceeded forty percent of the vote in six other counties. Douglas gained a mere 18 votes as a write-in candidate.

Results 1860 United States presidential election in TexasPartyCandidateVotesPercentageElectoral votes Southern Democratic John C. Breckinridge 47,548 75.47% 4 Constitutional Union John Bell 15,438 24.50% 0 Democratic Stephen A. Douglas (write-in) 18 0.03% 0 Total 63,004 100.00% 4

Results by county +1860 United States presidential election in Texas by countyCountyJohn C. BreckinridgeSouthern DemocraticJohn BellConstitutional UnionTotal votescast#%#%Anderson85388.30%11311.70%966Angelina 21363.58%12236.42%335Atascosa19490.23%219.77%215Austin 39574.53%13525.47%530Bandera 615.79%3284.21%38Bastrop 43370.18%18429.82%617Bee 12183.45%2416.55%145Bell48671.68%19228.32%678Bexar 98677.09%29322.91%1,279Blanco13682.93%2817.07%164Bosque 21882.58%4617.42%264Bowie 32472.00%12628.00%450Brazoria 39085.71%6514.29%455Brazos 25395.11%134.89%266Brown 3981.25%918.75%48Burleson 50682.14%11017.86%616Burnet 14852.11%13647.89%284Caldwell 42376.77%12823.23%551Calhoun35074.15%12225.85%472Cameron33580.34%8219.66%417Cass 53669.61%23430.39%770Chambers10684.80%1915.20%125Cherokee 90585.14%15814.86%1,063Collin66762.39%40237.61%1,069Colorado 56959.15%39340.85%962Comal 20190.95%209.05%221Comanche10492.04%97.96%113Cooke 26466.00%13634.00%400Coryell 24977.57%7222.43%321Dallas86875.81%27724.19%1,145Denton 58675.61%18924.39%775DeWitt 49085.51%8314.49%573Ellis 41666.88%20633.12%622El Paso 1,04298.96%111.04%1,053Erath 21491.85%198.15%233Falls 16165.45%8534.55%246Fannin 77867.36%37732.64%1,155Fayette 74462.78%44137.22%1,185Fort Bend 36292.11%317.89%393Freestone 56989.18%6910.82%638Galveston 73072.06%28327.94%1,013Gillespie 6648.53%7051.47%136Goliad24364.12%13635.88%379Gonzales 64675.12%21424.88%860Grayson 77663.76%44136.24%1,217Grimes60474.85%20325.15%807Guadalupe 24463.54%14036.46%384Hamilton 10893.10%86.90%116Hardin23193.52%166.48%247Harris99072.16%38227.84%1,372Harrison 68163.70%38836.30%1,069Hays16455.41%13244.59%296Henderson 46479.45%12020.55%584Hidalgo64100.00%00.00%64Hill 38974.95%13025.05%519Hopkins81274.98%27125.02%1,083Houston 43177.10%12822.90%559Hunt 71275.18%23524.82%947Jack10074.07%3525.93%135Jackson 18161.15%11538.85%296Jasper26875.28%8824.72%356Jefferson25775.15%8524.85%342Johnson 44688.32%5911.68%505Karnes16071.75%6328.25%223Kaufman 66379.69%16920.31%832Kerr8673.50%3126.50%117Lamar79170.44%33229.56%1,123Lampasas 8052.63%7247.37%152Lavaca 59684.42%11015.58%706Leon 57680.67%13819.33%714Liberty34598.29%61.71%351Limestone 48292.34%407.66%522Live Oak13392.36%117.64%144Llano 15376.12%4823.88%201Madison 23289.92%2610.08%258Marion 44670.79%18429.21%630Mason 1794.44%15.56%18Matagorda 19596.06%83.94%203McLennan 52472.18%20227.82%726Medina 14680.22%3619.78%182Milam 47473.15%17426.85%648Montague12078.95%3221.05%152Montgomery26369.95%11330.05%376Nacogdoches 38166.61%19133.39%572Navarro49174.17%17125.83%662Newton10089.29%1210.71%112Nueces 12874.42%4425.58%172Orange 12995.56%64.44%135Palo Pinto15296.20%63.80%158Panola51879.94%13020.06%648Parker 77582.36%16617.64%941Polk 56290.06%629.94%624Red River51462.30%31137.70%825Refugio15581.15%3618.85%191Robertson 34178.03%9621.97%437Rusk 1,14968.93%51831.07%1,667Sabine 23295.47%114.53%243San Augustine 21986.56%3413.44%253San Patricio 6495.52%34.48%67San Saba11574.68%3925.32%154Shelby42584.49%7815.51%503Smith 1,15576.85%34823.15%1,503Starr 4027.40%10672.60%146Tarrant 61874.82%20825.18%826Titus 88476.08%27823.92%1,162Travis55656.91%42143.09%977Trinity 21888.98%2711.02%245Tyler 49698.41%81.59%504Upshur94573.89%33426.11%1,279Uvalde 8180.20%2019.80%101Van Zandt 33592.03%297.97%364Victoria23571.65%9328.35%328Walker 49975.61%16124.39%660Washington 90884.23%17015.77%1,078Webb 7698.70%11.30%77Wharton 21591.10%218.90%236Williamson 48768.40%22531.60%712Wilson 4754.02%4045.98%87Wise 16965.50%8934.50%258Wood 51567.14%25232.86%767Young 9889.91%1110.09%109Zapata151100.00%00.00%151Total47,63975.54%15,42224.46%63,061

See also United States presidential elections in Texas

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