[2] The county is named for John Newton, a veteran of the American Revolutionary War.

Newton County is included in the Beaumont-Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Even when Republicans Herbert Hoover and Dwight D. Eisenhower carried Texas in 1928, 1952, and 1956, respectively, Newton County remained Democratic, usually by wide margins.

President Richard Nixon in 1972 became the first Republican to ever win the county in an election with 54% of the vote against Democrat George McGovern's 45.4%.

After 1972, the county returned to voting Democratic, surviving the landslide elections of Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in 1980, 1984, and 1988, respectively.

Michael Dukakis in 1988 remains the last Democratic presidential candidate to win over 60% of the vote in the county.

[10] Since 1988, the Democratic percentage in Newton County has decreased in every election, culminating in Al Gore's narrow win in 2000 with 50.16% against Governor George W. Bush's 48.56%.