Rural Texas voters support Trump

 Karen Townsend:

Former President Trump is doing well in Texas, thanks to rural and suburban voters. Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley do better than Trump in the cities.

In major cities in Texas, Trump is being outraised by DeSantis and Haley. In Houston, Dallas, and Austin, DeSantis and Haley easily outraise Trump. However, outside of the five biggest cities, Trump raised $3.8M according to the latest campaign reports. That is more than double the $1.7M DeSantis and Haley raised combined in the cities.

Interesting, right? It goes back more to the 2015-16 Trump than the 2020 Trump. Trump won rural voters and suburban voters more than Hillary. Hillary concentrated on large blue cities and both coasts while she took for granted everyone else. Then she was surprised when Trump won the Electoral College. The 2020 campaign of Trump was busy boasting that they won a higher than normal amount of black voters, mostly black men, and also impressive percentages of all minorities, for a Republican candidate. Trump looks more 2016 than 2020 right now, at least in Texas.

In Temple, Trump is outraising both combined 2-to-1. In Amarillo that jumps to 4-to-1. And in Conroe, the fundraising is 10-to-1 in Trump’s favor. It’s like that all over the state as smaller cities and towns have combined to overcome any financial disadvantage Trump has in the biggest cities. Trump has picked up donations from 957 cities and towns in Texas compared to 551 for Haley and 274 for DeSantis.

It’s all about the small donors. Just like with his national campaign, small donor contributions fuel his success in Texas. As with his national campaign, his campaign in Texas has seen an increase in donations since his legal troubles have come into play.

In fact, since his indictments in the classified documents case in Florida and the election interference case in Washington, D.C., Trump’s fundraising in Texas has picked up. He’s raised $2.1 million since July 1 — his best three months of fundraising in Texas since he announced his latest campaign for the White House. Meanwhile, both DeSantis and Haley have seen their fundraising numbers slow here. DeSantis raised just $850,000 in the last three months and Haley $975,000. For both, that is less than they had raised in the previous three months.

Overall, Trump now has raised $5 million from Texas while DeSantis has raised $3.3 million and Haley $2.6 million.

Elections are won state by state, as there is no national vote. Texas is the largest red state. Republican presidential candidates cannot win the national election without Texas. So, it’s good to keep an eye on what is happening in the state.
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I live in rural Texas and can confirm this breakdown.  BTW, Conroe is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country.  It is just north of Houston and apparently, conservatives are flocking to it.  Conroe is also near The Woodlands which is another fast-growing suburb of Houston.  The Woodlands is a unique development where houses and shops are hidden from sight along major streets by trees and other growth.  Back in my days as a lawyer, I worked on the financing of the development of the Woodlands among other developments.