statistically speaking, fun fact:
trump beat clinton 52.23 to 43.24 in texas, a difference of 8.99 percentage points. nationwide, clinton beat trump 48.18 to 46.09, a difference of -2.09 percentage points. this means that, relative to the national results, texas was about 11 percentage points "more republican".
in 2018:
cruz beat beto 50.9 to 48.3, a difference of -2.6 percentage points. nationwide, democrats beat republicans in the house popular vote (the closest thing we have to a nationwide benchmark) 53.1 to 45.2, a difference of 7.9 percentage points. this means that, relative to the national results, texas was about 10.5 percentage points "more republican".
so I mean... did he really? if we applied national voting trends to statewide election results, you end up with... basically beto.