Despite Democratic Early Voting Surge, More Republicans Voted Overall In Primaries

This week in Texas politics with the Texas Tribune.

By Rhonda Fanning & Alexandra HartMarch 9, 2018 1:14 pm,

Time for the week that was in Texas politics with Patrick Svitek, the primary political correspondent for the Texas Tribune.

In the run up to the primaries, Democrats outpaced Republicans in early voting. But when all the votes were tallied after Tuesday’s elections, 1.5 million Republicans had voted in Texas, with 1 million Democrats casting ballots.

“There were some very impressive increases for Democrats,” Svitek says, “and I wouldn’t be too upset if I were them this week.”

In Democratic contests around the state, women had great success. When voters pick the final winners in November, Texas could send as many as 20 women – three serve now – to the U.S. Congress.

Runoff elections will be held May 22, pitting the top two vote getters in races where no candidate topped 50 percent of the vote. Because so many Congressional races had large candidate fields, the number of runoffs is high. Svitek says runoffs set up potential conflicts among Democrats with different visions of how to succeed in the Trump era. The conflict could start in the gubernatorial contest between Lupe Valdez and Andrew White.

Listen to the full interview in the audio player above.