Texas election results: Donald Trump wins key state

Nearly 10 million Texans voted during the three weeks of early voting, surpassing the number of ballots cast in the 2016 election

Texas is remaining red as the state was called for Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election. 

Democrats had been optimistic about the Lone Star State in the final weeks of campaigning but to no avail for candidate Joe Biden.

The president won Texas’ 38 electoral votes crushing Democrats’ hopes of shaking the GOP’s grip on America’s most reliable red state.

 Voters piled onto Texas’ already record turnout on Tuesday as polls began closing in the most unpredictable election there in decades.

Donald Trump expressed confidence about Texas — which Republicans have carried in every presidential race since 1976 — but polls had suggested that Joe Biden still had a chance as Democrats saw unusual opportunity up and down the ballot in a state where they’ve been shut out for a generation.

Nearly 10 million people had cast a ballot early even before Tuesday, and few problems were reported at polling places as scores of voters continued turning out. 

In Harris County, a crucial battleground home to more nearly 5 million people, election officials reported that at least another 190,000 more votes had been cast.

Texas did not dramatically expand mail-in voting as other states had done due to the coronavirus pandemic, so in-person voting remained the main method of casting a ballot.

Months of legal challenges from state and party officials have played out in the courts over who is eligible for a mail-in, absentee ballot and where they could be dropped off.

In Texas, voters must be 65 years or older; disabled or out of the county on Election Day and during early voting to apply for a mail ballot. Officials from the U.S. Postal Service warned the Texas Secretary of State’s office that given the state’s current ballot deadlines, they could not guarantee some ballots would make it to voters or be mailed in on time.

As late as Monday, a group of Republican activists were also fighting to halt drive-thru voting in Houston. A federal appeals court panel denied the request in a one-sentence, late-night ruling.

The AP contributed to this report