Hillary Clinton, the Democratic presidential nominee, has launched a historic bid to win the deeply Republican state of Texas in a bid to destroy Donald Trump's chances of becoming president.

Mrs Clinton committed $1.5 million to begin running television advertisements in the Lone Star state, which is usually ignored by Democratic presidential nominees who have not won it for 40 years.

Texas has 38 votes in the presidential electoral college, the second biggest number of any state after California. A candidate needs 270 to win.

Targeting Texas amounted to a political "decapitation strategy" by taking the biggest Republican state.

Without it Mr Trump would have no chance at all of winning the White House.