There was massive turnout on the first day of early voting in the midterm elections in Texas, with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke locked in a tight race, The Hill reported on Tuesday.
The state's largest counties all had much larger first-day turnout than they did in the previous midterm elections two years ago. In Dallas County, for example, 55,384 in person and mail-in votes were cast, compared with 29,217 from the first day of early voting in 2014, The Dallas Morning News reported.
In Harris Country, which includes Houston, 63,188 went to the polls to cast ballots, compared with 20,215 two years ago and this year’s figure even beat out first-day voting in the past two presidential elections, which generally have a much higher turnout, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Similar surges from the first-day voting in the last midterm elections was also reported in other counties throughout the state, both large and small, according to The Texas Tribune.
Renée Cross, senior director for the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston, credited passion from supporters of both major parties this election cycle as reason for the record turnout, telling the Tribune that “we see so much anger or enthusiasm about candidates in much higher numbers than we’ve ever seen. From a political standpoint, I think there’s just as much energy that we’ve seen in presidential years.”
There are approximately 15.8 million Texans registered to vote in midterm elections this year.
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