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According to the Associated Press, Texas voters went for Donald Trump on Tuesday, giving the Republican candidate the state’s 40 electoral votes and continuing his streak of being in the red in every presidential election since the election of Jimmy Carter in 1976.

Neither candidate has yet reached the 270 electoral votes needed to win the race.

Governor Greg Abbott celebrated Trump’s victory.

“Congratulations to President Donald Trump on his overwhelming victory in Texas,” Abbott said in a statement. “Texans know who will lower inflation, secure our southern border, unleash American energy and crack down on violent crime – and that is Donald Trump. Texans rejected Kamala Harris’ left-wing agenda and voted to restore freedom, prosperity and opportunity for all Americans.”

Texas has never been seriously considered a swing state this election cycle, despite a few visits by both candidates in recent months. But Democrats have held out hope for years that the state will become bluer.

In recent years, Democrats have claimed that they are narrowing the Republican Party’s electoral advantage by, on the one hand, bringing in a younger generation of voters who are more racially diverse and, on the other hand, winning over moderate Republicans and independent voters who oppose the dominant party’s rightward shift had enough.

In 2012, Republican Mitt Romney won the state by 16 percentage points over former President Barack Obama, a Democrat. In 2016, Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 9 percentage points. And in 2020, Trump won the state by 5.6 percentage points against Biden. This was the closest presidential race in Texas since 1996, when Republican candidate Bob Dole defeated former President Bill Clinton by five points.

Republicans have downplayed the minority party’s progress and pointed to several Democratic false starts, including Gov. Greg Abbott’s 20-point defeat of former Sen. Wendy Davis in 2014 and Democratic superstar Beto O’Rourke’s 11-point defeat Abbott two years ago. Both Democratic candidates had raised large sums of money for their bids against Abbott.