Adams County, Texas

Location within the U.S. state of Texas

**Adams County** is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 402 as of the 2020 U.S. census, it is the fourth-least populous county in Texas. Its county seat and only community is Dead Man's Hollow. The county was organized in 1891 from the western half of Deaf Smith County. The county is named for 2nd President of the United States and Founding Father John Adams.

## Politics and government

### Politics

Adams County has historically had a unique political makeup in comparison to the rest of Texas, with Adams County being primarily settled by people from the Midwestern United States who held strong Unionist and Yankee sympathies, leading to the county developing into a Republican stronghold in the still very heavily Democratic Texas. At the national level, the county has voted Republican in every presidential election since 1892, the first election it was able to participate in. Only 5 Democrats have ever even received over 25% of the popular vote in the history of the county, those being Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932 and 1936, John F. Kennedy in 1960, Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 and Jimmy Carter in 1976. It was the only county in Texas which FDR did not carry in 1932, despite the fact that he carried every other county in the state with over 60% of the popular vote. Since 1980, only two Democrats have received even 10% of the popular vote in the county, those being Jimmy Carter in his ill-fated 1980 re-election campaign and Barack Obama in 2008, both receiving 12% of the popular vote.

In addition, the county was one of Ross Perot's strongest in 1992, with Perot receiving over 44% of the popular vote in the county, only narrowly being defeated by George H. W. Bush. 1992 was also the only county since 1980 in the county in which the GOP did not receive at least 75% of the popular vote. In recent years, the county has become the most Republican in the country, being Mitt Romney's strongest county in 2012 in addition to Donald Trump's strongest in both 2016 and 2020. The county went 97% for Trump in 2016 and over 99% for Trump in 2020, with the county voting 100% for Greg Abbott in the 2022 Texas gubernatorial election. At the local level, conservative Democrats have historically been competitive in the county, with the Democratic Party dominating the county government until the 1960s. However, the Democratic Party have failed to elect any public officials in the county since 1968, and the Republican Party holds total dominance over the county and its government.

### Local government

The county government is entirely dominated by Republicans, with no Democrat at any level in the county government. In fact, the last time a Democrat had been elected any office in the county was before the 1968 election, and the last non-Republican to hold a office in the county was county councilor Patrick Cooke, who represented the northwestern quadrant of the county in the Adams County Council and joined the far-right Constitution Party in 2001. He was consistently re-elected and served as the only opposition in the county council until his death in 2017.

The most prominent family in the politics of the county is the Edward family, whose patriarch was Sheriff Charlie Edward (1926-1998), who moved to the county as a young child and served as its sheriff from 1950 until his death in 1998. Edward was one of the last Democrats to hold any form of office in the county, however switched party affiliations to become a Republican in 1964, supporting Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign and opposing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He later supported George Wallace for president in 1968, a position that nearly costed him re-election, however he would consistently win re-election in landslide margins from that point forward. Edward was the Republican nominee for Governor of Texas in 1972, running on a populist and far-right platform that emphasized his opposition to desegregation, receiving less than 35% of the popular vote. His son Terry, also active in far-right politics, was elected to replace him as sheriff after his unsolved murder in 1998, and continues to serve as sheriff into the present day.

#### County Council

Adams County Council after the 2023 elections
 2nd
 3rd
 4th