Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emerged victorious in the Texas Democratic primaries on Tuesday, easily defeating Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Clinton consistently led in pre-primary polling, with about 61 percent of Texas Democrats supporting her and 33 percent supporting Sanders, according to HuffPost Pollster averages on Tuesday.

Texas is important for its size and its large minority populations, which could prove pivotal in November's general election.

The primary results will decide the votes of 222 of Texas' 251 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Most of the delegate pledges determined during the primary are divided by Senate districts and distributed proportionately ; others are based on statewide primary results.

Texas has traditionally swung Republican in the general election, although Democrats hope that could change, due in part to the state's growing and largely Democratic-leaning Latino population. The state's population is about 39 percent Latino, 13 percent black and about 5 percent Asian, according to 2014 census estimates.

Clinton's campaign has argued that she is the more popular candidate with minority voters, a claim bolstered by overwhelming support from black voters in South Carolina, where she won the primary on Saturday. It was unclear whether she or Sanders won among Latino voters in the Nevada caucuses in February.

Clinton won the 2008 Democratic primary in Texas with almost 51 percent of the vote; then-Sen. Barack Obama received about 47 percent. Obama went on to lose Texas in the general election in 2008 and again in 2012.