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* [[Plato, Missouri|Plato]]
* [[Plato, Missouri|Plato]]
* [[Raymondville, Missouri|Raymondville]]
* [[Raymondville, Missouri|Raymondville]]
==Government==
Local government in Texas County is provided by the elected officials. At present, nearly all of these positions are held by members of the [[Republican]] party.<ref>https://www.texascountymissouri.gov/#</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Countywide official !! Name !! Party
|-
| Assessor || Debbie James || Republican
|-
| Circuit Clerk || Marci Mosley || Republican
|-
| County Clerk || Laura Crowley || Republican
|-
| Collector/Treasurer || Tammy Cantrell || Democratic
|-
| Commissioner (presiding) || Scott Long || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (District 1) || John Casey || Republican
|-
| Commissioner (District 2) || Doyle Heiney || Republican
|-
| Coroner || Marie Lasater || Republican
|-
| Prosecuting Attorney || Parke Stevens, Jr. || Republican
|-
| Public Administrator || Tina Garrett || Republican
|-
| Recorder || Lindsay Koch || Republican
|-
| Sheriff || Scott Lindsey || Republican
|-
| Surveyor || Chuck Manier || Republican
|}
At the state level, all of Texas County is part of the 142nd District in the Missouri House of Representatives, which also includes portions of Howell, Phelps, and Pulaski Counties. It is currently represented by Bennie Cook (R-Houston), who was elected to his first term in November 2020 without opposition.
In the Missouri State Senate, Texas County is part of the 33rd District, which also includes Douglas, Howell, Oregon, Ozark, [[Ripley County, Missouri|Ripley]], Webster, and Wright Counties. It is currently represented by Karla Eslinger (R-Wasola), who was elected to her first term in November 2020, defeating [[Democratic]] candidate Tammy Harty.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Karla Eslinger || Republican || 64,891 || 83.813%
|-
| Tammy Harty || Democratic || 12,533 || 16.187%
|}
Eslinger roughly matched her overall total in Texas County, winning 9,140 votes to 1,798 for Harty.
At the federal level, Texas County is part of Missouri's 8th Congressional District, which includes most of southeast and south-central Missouri. It is represented by [[Jason Smith]] (R-[[Salem, Missouri|Salem]]), who won re-election in November 2020, defeating Democrat Kathy Ellis.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Candidate !! Party !! Votes !! Vote Percentage
|-
| Jason Smith || Republican || 253,811 || 76.86%
|-
| Kathy Ellis || Democratic || 70,561 || 21.367%
|-
| Tom Schmitz || Libertarian || 5,854 || 1.773%
|}
Smith significantly overperformed his average margin in Texas County, winning 83.323% of the vote.<ref>https://www.sos.mo.gov/elections/s_default</ref>
'''Political Culture'''
As the above numbers indicate, Texas County is generally a very strongly Republican-leaning county. Though it frequently supported the Democratic candidate in presidential elections in the early and mid-20th century, it has not done so since 1992, when it voted for [[Bill Clinton]]. Since 2000, it has never given the GOP candidate less than 60% of the vote. In 2016, [[Donald Trump]] won the county overwhelmingly with 81.01% of the vote, increasing his total to 83.76% in the 2020 election.<ref>https://enrarchives.sos.mo.gov/enrnet/CountyResults.aspx</ref>
Like much of southern Missouri, Texas County can be included within the [[Bible Belt]], combining social [[conservatism]] with economic [[populism]]. In 2004, it voted overwhelmingly in favor of Constitutional Amendment 2, which recognized marriage as between a man and a woman only--the measure passed in Howell County with 85.63% support. In 2006, while the state narrowly passed an amendment to fund embryonic stem-cell research, the county decisively defeated the measure with 61.13% voting against. At the same time, it often supports economic measures that appear to favor the working and middle class, though less strongly than some other areas. In the November 2006 election, the county, like the state, supported a proposed increase in the state minimum wage, with 72.03% voting in favor, but in November 2018, a similar measure (which passed the state at large) was narrowly defeated, with 51.89% voting against. These results generally align with the rest of southern Missouri and place Texas County among its most reliably conservative regions.
==References==
==References==