Preliminary data show a surge in voter turnout along the Texas-Mexico border and in the state's most populous counties helped Democrats win a sweep in Tuesday's election, according to the reporting. About 9.8 million Texans cast ballots, the most in a Texas midterm since at least 1970, though turnout did not set a record. Turnout was 51.6% of the 19 million registered voters, according to preliminary data from the Texas Secretary of State's office. That is higher than the 2022 midterm but below the 53% recorded in 2018.
Joshua Blank, director of research for the Texas Politics Project, said the result came from a national wave rather than record turnout. "It's not as though this was a wildly high turnout election," Blank said. "It's just that the nature of the turnout obviously favored Democrats overwhelmingly."
Compared with 2022, turnout rose in every type of county, from urban to rural. Border counties saw turnout grow by more than 8 percentage points, and rural counties saw the smallest increase, about 1.4 points. Five South Texas and border counties, Starr, Zapata, Maverick, Hidalgo and Webb, each shifted more than 38 points toward Democrats, the story said.