Texas is playing host to a series of high-stakes contests up and down the ballot, from a presidential race that could be the state’s closest in a generation to the fight for the Texas House majority.
It’s finally Election Day.
After months of campaigning and prognosticating — all during a pandemic — Texas is playing host to a series of high-stakes contests up and down the ballot, from a presidential race that could be the state’s closest in a generation to the fight for the Texas House majority. And it is all coming after an early voting period that saw turnout exceed the number of votes for the entire 2016 election. After 9.7 million people voted early, some experts believe Texas might be on a path to potentially surpass 12 million voters when all is said and done.
Texas has attracted intense national interest in recent weeks, and in one sign of it, the chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, spent the day before the election traveling the state.
“The road to the White House runs through Texas, and the road to a Senate majority runs straight through the great state of Texas, and that’s why I’m proud to be here, folks,” Perez said Monday morning in San Antonio.
Hours later, as he finished a six-day bus tour in Dripping Springs, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn recognized two of the factors making for a dramatic end to the general election in Texas: the massive early voting turnout and a late surge in outside Democratic spending against both him and President Donald Trump. Cornyn said the 9.7 million early voters are a “wonderful thing” but added that “about a million of them have never voted in a primary general election, so that’s going to be an interesting mystery.”
“We’ve never seen such an unprecedented amount of out-of-state money coming into Texas this election,” said Cornyn, speaking from the balcony of his campaign bus surrounded by down-ballot candidates. “Every single Republican up here is being outspent by our opposition.”
A reminder: The number of Texas voters casting absentee ballots has risen sharply due to the coronavirus pandemic, and the outcome of some key races may not be known Tuesday night as a result.
That being said, here are five of the biggest storylines to watch.
Can Joe Biden actually win Texas?
A Democrat hasn’t won Texas’ electoral votes since 1976, but statewide polls show a highly competitive race.
If Biden can turn voters out and flip the state, it would be a massive event in state and American politics — and would almost certainly mean a Biden victory nationwide.
A Democratic win in Texas could hinge on Hispanic and suburban voters. On Friday, Biden’s running mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, made a last-minute stop in McAllen with Beto O’Rourke and Julián Castro. When asked by a reporter there why she was visiting the border city, Harris said it was “because there are people here who matter, people who are working hard, people who love their country, and we need to be here and be responsive to that.” (Trump hasn’t done any general-election campaigning in Texas, though national surveys have shown Trump improving among Hispanic voters compared with his 2016 standing.)
Texas’ fast-changing suburbs, meanwhile, have been steadily slipping out of Republicans’ grip over the last few election cycles. On Tuesday, Democrats are hoping to pick up several congressional and state House seats in these regions and build on the suburban strength they garnered in 2018 to undercut Trump’s advantage in rural areas of the state.
Photo: After 9.7 million people voted early, some experts believe Texas might be on a path to potentially surpass 12 million voters when all is said and done. Credit: Jordan Vonderhaar for The Texas Tribune
BY ALEX SAMUELS AND PATRICK SVITEK with Texas Tribune.
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