{"id":490115,"date":"2026-02-25T18:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490115\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:59:12","slug":"democratic-primary-turnout-breaking-records-across-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490115\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic primary turnout breaking records across Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy<\/a>, and give us feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n

More ballots have been cast in Texas through the first seven days of early voting for the 2026 midterms than any recent midterm or presidential election year, driven by high turnout in the Democratic primary. <\/p>\n

That turnout is fueling optimism among Texas Democrats, who are once again trying to score their first election victory for a statewide office since 1994. <\/p>\n

Through Monday, 665,664 votes were cast in-person and by mail in the Democratic primary, compared to 593,692 cast in the Republican primary, according to unofficial data from the Texas Secretary of State. The 1,259,356 votes is higher than both the 2024 and 2020 primaries through seven days of early voting, despite turnout typically being higher in presidential election years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell Democrats that they have every reason to feel optimistic, but that optimism should be interpreted as just meaning that they have a chance,\u201d said Jeffrey Engle, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. \u201cAnyone who thinks that Democrats have a cakewalk to a blue wave is deluding themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Democratic Party officials are particularly enthused by record-breaking turnout in places like Harris County, the state\u2019s most populous base of Democratic voters, and Tarrant County, the state\u2019s most populous purple county, where Democrat Taylor Rehmet recently won a 14-point victory in the Senate District 9 special election runoff, in a district that President Donald Trump won by 17 points in 2024. <\/p>\n

\u201cTarrant, like Texas, often has the lowest voter participation of any urban county in the United States, so we have a large amount of room to grow that allows us to put up big numbers,\u201d said Allison Campolo, chair of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. \u201cThe fact that Tarrant County voters are waking up day after day and \u2026 putting up bigger numbers than Republicans \u2026 absolutely leads us into November with a really strong turnout and engagement.\u201d <\/p>\n

The competitive primary for U.S. Senate between state Rep. James Talarico<\/a>, D-Austin, and U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett<\/a>, D-Dallas, and the unpopularity of President Donald Trump among Democratic voters could both be driving the Democratic turnout, Engle said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that primaries are what draw the most enthusiastic voters, but by definition, the most enthusiastic voters are a small group,\u201d Engle said. \u201cWhat is going to be most telling about this election on the Republican side \u2026 is Republican apathy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turnout in the Republican primary may lag behind Democrats, but it is still higher compared to recent midterm elections \u2014 and it\u2019s ahead of Republican turnout through the first seven days of the 2020 presidential primary elections, according to Secretary of State data. <\/p>\n

Dave Carney, the top political consultant for Gov. Greg Abbott<\/a>, said the high turnout among Democrats is simple to explain: Crockett and Talarico are running a high profile, competitive campaign and spending millions of dollars to turn out voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen was the last time the Democrats had a statewide primary where they spent millions of dollars?\u201d Carney asked. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t happened in my lifetime, and I\u2019ve been (in Texas) since 1993.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking at turnout in tandem with Rehmet\u2019s January upset victory in Tarrant County, Carney said, Democratic voters are clearly energized because of Trump. However, he said Republicans will still carry the state if they campaign behind strong candidates with a strong message, because there are simply more voters in Texas that lean toward the Republicans than the Democrats. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose swing voters, in a general election, will decide almost 90% of the races that will be competitive come November,\u201d Carney said. <\/p>\n

Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, agreed that the competitive primary between Talarico and Crockett is likely driving turnout among Democrats but noted that Republicans have a competitive Senate primary of their own. <\/p>\n

\u201cSure, we\u2019re having a bit of a brawl on our side, but people are excited to show up for our candidates because they\u2019re people that actually deliver results for working class people,\u201d Scudder said. <\/p>\n

Disclosure: Southern Methodist University and the Texas Secretary of State have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune\u2019s journalism. Find a complete\u00a0list of them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[164749,23,1070,3,21,19,22,20,25,24,8647,138963],"class_list":{"0":"post-490115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-2026-elections","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa","18":"tag-voting","19":"tag-well-c-homepage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}