From: Houston Chronicle – msn.com – March 5, 2018

Residents in the Lone Star State will open the midterm election season when they take to the polls on Tuesday.

The primary races could have national implications in both the House and the Senate come Election Day this November. With early voting in Texas already underway, some analysts say the wave of Democratic voters could bode poorly for prior GOP strongholds.

Through the first six days of early voting, about 10,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary elections than in the Republican primaries in the state’s 15 largest counties. Four years ago — the most recent year with a gubernatorial election — Republicans were 54,000 voters ahead of Democrats.

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for his second term, acknowledged there was a strong turnout of Democratic voters in early voting. His campaign sent an email blast to supporters last week warning that Democrats are surging and becoming a real concern headed into the mid-term election cycle.

“Democrats are already on a winning streak, flipping seats in special elections across the country in GOP strongholds,” the Abbott campaign email warns. “We’ve seen a surge of liberal enthusiasm in deep red states like Georgia, Alabama and Oklahoma. We had always hoped the liberal wave would never hit Texas, but these Early Voting returns aren’t encouraging so far.”

“If these trends continue, we could be in real trouble come Election Day,” the email says.

State Democratic Party chair Gilberto Hinojosa said the numbers once again point to Democrats being more competitive than ever before.

“We have an historic number of Democratic candidates in virtually every level of office and the progressive values to more our state forward,” he said.

In the Houston region, Republicans are still outvoting Democrats, but not by the margins they did four years ago. In Harris County, 35,036 people have voted in the Republican primary compared to 34,555 in the Democratic primary. Four years ago, Republicans had 32,000 voters and Democrats had fewer than 12,000. In Fort Bend, 8,500 people have voted in the Republican primary compared with 6,300 in the Democratic primary. Four years ago, 6,300 people voted in the Republican Primary and just 1,700 voted in the Democratic Primary. In Montgomery County, 13,800 people have voted in the Republican primary with just 2,400 voting in the Democratic primary. In 2014, about 11,400 voted in the Republican primary and less than 700 voted in the Democratic primary.

GOP Senator Ted Cruz is set to soar to the republican nomination. When it comes to the general election, a spirited democratic Congressman, though longshot underdog Beto O’Rourke believes he can beat the odds. O’Rourke has a very long way to go. No democrat has represented Texas in the U.S. Senate since 1993.

On the House side, one of the higher profile elections is happening in the 27th District, which is currently held by Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold. Farenthold is one of the political casualties of the recent revelations of sexual misconduct in Washington.

Farenthold announced last December that he would not seek a fourth term in Congress after allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior against him came to light. Farenthold’s decision to retire came as the House Ethics Committee reopened an investigation into the claims of a former press secretary, Lauren Greene, who settled a federal lawsuit against the congressman in 2015.

Though the settlement was made public at the time, Farenthold only recently acknowledged that it involved an $84,000 taxpayer-funded payment, which he said he would repay.

Despite the Farenthold controversy, District 27 is likely to remain in the hands of the GOP.

To see this article, click read more.

Source: Texas prepares for first primary of 2018 midterm election season