Tom Green County Goes for Trump, Jones

Here are the results from the Tom Green County Elections office for the Nov. 8, 2016 Presidential Election. We are only reporting contested races. Download the official results here.

At the county elections office tonight a 9 p.m., long faces were seen as elections officers worked to produce the first elections returns from Tom Green County for the evening of what is looking like a historic presidential election.

Fox News had already called the State of Texas for Donald Trump, while our county continued to collate the latest returns. Just before 10 p.m., they published the first batch of returns showing a 49.86 percent voter turnout. By 10:10 p.m., a second batch of returns were posted, raising the turnout to 59.92 percent.That high number became the total turnout, barely exceeding the turnout of the 2012 Presidential Election of 59.53 percent.

Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump will carry Tom Green County with 71.49 percent of the vote.

Tom Green County Democratic Chairman David Currie and his Republican counterpart Jeff Betty both agreed the process was moving along smoothly. Currie lamented that the county is not yet turned “blue” for Democrats. “My mother is 94 years old now and I suspect I have 30 more years and maybe we’ll see it in my lifetime,” Currie said, confident of his genes.

Betty, who early on was critical of Trump, was introspective. He said after the Republican convention, he saw more than just white people wanting to get involved in Republican politics, a phenomenon he credits Trump’s message. “I've had more African Americans and Latinos come to our office than in any election cycle I’ve been involved with the local party,” Betty said.

The two issues most important to Tom Green County’s Latino Republicans were that they were anti-abortion and against illegal immigration.

Sheriff David Jones has defeated his Democrat challenger for the second election in a row. Jones said over the phone that he was thankful to the citizens of Tom Green County for entrusting him with another four years. A full story on Jones is forthcoming.

Here are the election returns for Tom Green County as of 11:30 p.m.