The county is named for Robert Levi Foard, an attorney who served as a major with the Confederate Army,[3][4] in the American Civil War.

Foard County was one of 46 prohibitions, or entirely dry, counties in the state of Texas until voters approved a referendum to permit the legal sale of alcoholic beverages in May 2006.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 708 square miles (1,830 km2), of which 704 sq mi (1,820 km2) are land and 3.3 sq mi (8.5 km2) (0.5%) are covered by water.

In the 21st century, the vote share of Republican presidential candidates has steadily increased in every election.

The Republican vote jumped to a record high of over 82% for Donald Trump in 2024.

At the statewide level, most notably in gubernatorial races, the county was one of the few rural ones that continued to give its votes to Democratic candidates in West Texas, even as it trended Republican on the national level.

The county continued this trend through all of Rick Perry's three gubernatorial landslide elections in 2002, 2006, and 2010, the most recent one when it gave its votes to Bill White.