Zapata County, Texas: New American county. In 2024, voted R+22%. Republican peak: R+100 in 1912.
Key facts
- 2024 presidential margin
- R+22MIT Election Lab
- Political typology
- New AmericanAkashic typology
- Population
- 13,8412024 5-year
- Median household income
- $39,2392024 5-year
- White (non-Hispanic)
- 21.1%2024 5-year
- Black
- 0.1%2024 5-year
- Hispanic / Latino
- 93.9%2024 5-year
- Peak Democratic margin
- D+88 in 1928MIT Election Lab
- Peak Republican margin
- R+100 in 1912MIT Election Lab
- Most similar
- Starr County, TX · similarity 0.98
2024 results by precinct
2024 precinct map of Zapata CountyPrecinct-level 2024 presidential results for Zapata County, with each precinct boundary colored by Democratic-vs-Republican margin.
—
Margin—
Turnout—
Harris +50Trump +50
Real precinct boundaries. Hover for vote totals.
presidential history
Presidential margin, 1876–2024
Democratic minus Republican, by election
| Year | Margin (D minus R) |
|---|---|
| 1876 | No data |
| 1880 | No data |
| 1884 | No data |
| 1888 | No data |
| 1892 | No data |
| 1896 | No data |
| 1900 | No data |
| 1904 | No data |
| 1908 | No data |
| 1912 | −100.0% |
| 1916 | −78.3% |
| 1920 | −32.4% |
| 1924 | +20.7% |
| 1928 | +87.9% |
| 1932 | +83.7% |
| 1936 | +78.5% |
| 1940 | +22.6% |
| 1944 | +83.7% |
| 1948 | +20.8% |
| 1952 | +7.9% |
| 1956 | +16.3% |
| 1960 | +44.4% |
| 1964 | +76.2% |
| 1968 | +54.3% |
| 1972 | +5.0% |
| 1976 | +44.8% |
| 1980 | +16.1% |
| 1984 | +13.0% |
| 1988 | +38.7% |
| 1992 | +36.5% |
| 1996 | +51.6% |
| 2000 | +26.2% |
| 2004 | +15.0% |
| 2008 | +35.6% |
| 2012 | +43.2% |
| 2016 | +32.9% |
| 2020 | −5.3% |
| 2024 | −22.4% |
DemocraticRepublican
38 presidential elections
| Year | Won | Margin | Democratic | Republican | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| R | 1,877 | 2,970 | 4,871 | ||
| R | 1,826 | 2,033 | 3,878 | ||
| D | 2,063 | 1,029 | 3,142 | ||
| D | 2,527 | 997 | 3,543 | ||
| D | 1,939 | 919 | 2,866 | ||
| D | 1,662 | 1,228 | 2,898 | ||
| D | 1,638 | 953 | 2,616 | ||
| D | 1,786 | 521 | 2,450 | ||
| D | 2,052 | 866 | 3,249 | ||
| D | 2,171 | 958 | 3,135 | ||
| D | 1,577 | 1,214 | 2,801 | ||
| D | 1,218 | 874 | 2,131 | ||
| D | 1,216 | 462 | 1,682 | ||
| D | 768 | 695 | 1,463 | ||
| D | 909 | 251 | 1,212 | ||
| D | 1,009 | 135 | 1,147 | ||
| D | 675 | 260 | 935 | ||
| D | 886 | 637 | 1,524 | ||
| D | 616 | 526 | 1,143 | ||
| D | 632 | 414 | 1,047 | ||
| D | 501 | 43 | 547 | ||
| D | 784 | 495 | 1,279 | ||
| D | 282 | 34 | 316 | ||
| D | 271 | 24 | 295 | ||
| D | 296 | 19 | 315 | ||
| D | 300 | 197 | 498 | ||
| R | 50 | 98 | 148 | ||
| R | 26 | 214 | 240 | ||
| R | 0 | 199 | 199 | ||
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Demographics
2024 ACS
Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
American
2.4%
German
2.2%
English
1.1%
Irish
0.7%
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
Multiple ancestry combinations reported; no single grouping above 1%.
Sample size too small to break out by ancestry reliably.
American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander combined.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
2024 ACS
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 32.3 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
85+
75–84
65–74
55–64
45–54
35–44
25–34
18–24
5–17
<5
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Median household income
Inflation-adjusted dollars
$39,239
Zapata County ranks in the bottom 5% of US counties.
Zapata County$39,239
Texas$78,476
United States$80,734
Zapata County ranks in the bottom 5% of US counties by median household income.
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
38.4%
Nearly half of children live in poverty.
Children under 1851.2%
Working age (18–64)29.9%
Seniors (65+)57.0%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
2024 ACS
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
17.1%
speak English only
Spanish82.4%
Asian & Pacific Islander0.4%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
2020 religion census
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 34.9% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.
Zapata County, where Spanish is the dominant home language and the economy leans heavily on ranching and oil, recorded a 22-point Republican presidential margin in 2024 — a dramatic reversal from the double-digit Democratic leads it posted just eight years earlier.
Zapata County has leaned Republican in recent presidential elections, reaching a Democratic margin of eighty-eight points in 1928. Between 2020 and 2024 it moved seventeen points toward the Republican candidate — part of the sharpest rightward shift recorded among any group of places in the country.
Its demographics describe the shift: a 21% non-Hispanic-white share, a median household income of $39,239, and a population of 13,841. The county's voting pattern over the last decade is most similar to that of Starr County and Maverick County.
Most similar counties
Compare two places, side by side
Twelve curated comparisons line up election history, demographics, and the divergence story for two places at a glance. Browse all comparisons →
Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Zapata County, Texas. Akashic. https://akashic.app/county/48505/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0
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Frequently asked questions
How did Zapata County, Texas vote in 2024?
In 2024, Zapata County, Texas voted Republican by 22.4 points (R+22), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 4,871 votes cast, 1,877 went Democratic and 2,970 went Republican.
What is Zapata County, Texas's political typology?
Akashic places Zapata County, Texas in the "New American" typology — Communities where a large share of households speak a language other than English — multilingual, Democratic-leaning overall, yet the hardest-swinging bloc toward the Republican Party in 2024. The typology is a data-driven cluster built from vote share, vote swing, race and ethnicity, income, language spoken at home, religion, and ancestry. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the county has voted Democratic 24 times, Republican 5 times, and other 0 times.
When did Zapata County, Texas last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Zapata County, Texas voted Democratic was 2016.
How many people live in Zapata County, Texas?
Zapata County, Texas has a population of 13,841 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Zapata County, Texas?
Median household income in Zapata County, Texas is $39,239 — below the national median of $80,734. The Texas state median is $78,476.
What is the political history of Zapata County, Texas?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Zapata County, Texas from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 24 went Democratic and 5 went Republican. The county's typology — "New American" — captures where that record, its demographics, and its recent swing place it among American communities.