Early voting tally shows large turnout in Texas GOP Senate runoff, drop from March primary rate |
Early voting tally shows large turnout in Texas GOP Senate runoff, drop from March primary rate
AUSTIN (Nexstar) — The number of early Republican voters who cast a ballot last week in the runoff election far outpaces any runoff election data from this decade.
Data from the Texas Secretary of State’s office shows there were 829,119 mail-in and in-person votes cast in the Republican primary during the week of early voting. That reflects a 103 percent increase from the Republican primary runoff in 2020; a 77 percent increase from 2022; and a 230 percent increase from 2024.
While it’s a greater turnout than prior May runoffs, it was also a 61 percent decrease compared to the March Republican primary, which saw 1,342,995 early voters. The Democratic primary had 1,493,355 votes cast during early voting in March.
The comparatively higher turnout this May could be due to the battle between Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for the GOP’s Senate nomination. While Cornyn........