For the first time since before World War II, the Dallas Morning News endorsed a Democrat, Hillary Clinton, for president. | AP Photo Dallas Morning News endorses Clinton for president

Breaking with decades of encouraging readers to vote for the Republican presidential candidate in the general election, The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday endorsed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, who the editorial board previously suggested is not a real Republican.

“We don’t come to this decision easily. This newspaper has not recommended a Democrat for the nation’s highest office since before World War II — if you’re counting, that’s more than 75 years and nearly 20 elections,” the editorial board wrote. “The party’s over-reliance on government and regulation to remedy the country’s ills is at odds with our belief in private-sector ingenuity and innovation. Our values are more about individual liberty, free markets and a strong national defense.”


The board had endorsed the Republican nominee in every presidential election dating to World War II, save for the 1964 election, when it remained neutral between Democratic President (and Texan) Lyndon B. Johnson and Republican challenger Barry Goldwater.

While acknowledging its past concerns with Clinton’s handling of “certain issues,” the board contrasted her “experience in actual governance” to that of Trump.

“Résumé vs. résumé, judgment vs. judgment, this election is no contest,” the op-ed continued, making note of the host of Republican hands backing Clinton, including Jim Glassman, founding director of the George W. Bush Institute in Dallas.

Noting Clinton’s “real shortcomings” and calling her “use of a private email server” as secretary of state a “clear example of poor judgment,” the board called on Clinton to take additional steps to distance herself from the Clinton Foundation, should she take office. “And she must be more forthright with the public by holding news conferences, as opposed to relying on a shield of carefully scripted appearances and speeches,” the board said.

“Those are real shortcomings. But they pale in comparison to the litany of evils some opponents accuse her of. Treason? Murder? Her being cleared of crimes by investigation after investigation has no effect on these political hyenas; they refuse to see anything but conspiracies and cover-ups,” the board wrote.

Pronouncing Trump’s values as “hostile to conservatism,” the newspaper wrote that the Republican nominee “plays on fear — exploiting base instincts of xenophobia, racism and misogyny — to bring out the worst in all of us, rather than the best.”

“His serial shifts on fundamental issues reveal an astounding absence of preparedness,” the board continued. “And his improvisational insults and midnight tweets exhibit a dangerous lack of judgment and impulse control.”

After 25 years on the national stage and even more years in the public spotlight, it concluded, “Clinton is a known quantity,” who “for all her warts … is the candidate more likely to keep our nation safe, to protect American ideals and to work across the aisle to uphold the vital domestic institutions that rely on a competent, experienced president.”

“Hillary Clinton has spent years in the trenches doing the hard work needed to prepare herself to lead our nation,” the editorial board concluded. “In this race, at this time, she deserves your vote.”