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Today is the last day of a very busy early voting season, with early voting numbers surpassing recent midterms and presidential election cycles. Turnout has been especially high for Democrats.
According to reporting from the Texas Tribune, as of Monday—the first day of the second week of early voting—the Texas Democratic primaries were beating the Texas Republican primaries in turnout by just under 72,000 votes.
In total, primary election turnout for the 2026 midterm cycle has outpaced recent presidential and midterm election years. This raises the obvious question: What’s motivating this massive voter turnout?
For the Democrats, the answer is fairly simple: Trump is the main motivator. Dr. Bobby Eberle, chairman of the Fort Bend County Republican Party, explained: “He [Trump] is a lightning rod for Democrats. Now he’s in office, and he is on the ballot in a sense, because the Democrats are energized to go after him.”
Dr. Eberle also pointed to the race for Texas’ Senate seat, which has been particularly contentious on the Democratic side of the aisle, saying: “The Democrats fighting it out in a primary is really getting a lot of attention. Crockett is kind of a national figure, and Talarico is getting profiled.”
Now the biggest question is whether this will be reflective of the November election. Eberle doesn’t think so. He predicted that on Election Day next Tuesday, voter totals will still balance out, and Republicans—at least in Texas—can expect to perform well in November.