The first official primary for the 2018 congressional elections took place on Tuesday in Texas — and it wasn’t the stunning upset Democrats had hoped for.
While Democrats came out in higher-than-usual numbers Tuesday, that was not enough to beat the Republicans as hoped. Way more Republicans showed up to vote across the deep red state, stealing momentum from the anti-Trump movement.
Women running for Congress surged to big wins and Democrats’ turnout levels gave Republicans a potential glimpse of what’s ahead in the first midterms under President Donald Trump. But the GOP still held strong.
Energized and angry Democrats in Texas, where the GOP has dominated for decades, didn’t show up as much as liberals had hoped.
“By the early hours of Wednesday, Democratic vote totals neared 1 million, nearly doubling totals from 2014 and reaching a level not seen in a midterm primary for the party since 2002,” reported NPR.
For all the mainstream media talk of renewed Democratic energy heading into the 2018 midterms, Texas Republicans also set a new benchmark for turnout in a midterm election.
Unfortunately for these energized liberals, more than 1.5 million people voted Tuesday in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate, won by incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz. That beat the previous record of 1.48 million in 2010, during former President Barack Obama’s first term.
Cruz released a radio ad after clinching the GOP nomination Tuesday night, telling voters that Democratic opponent Beto O’Rourke “wants to take our guns.”
While 2002 was a high water mark for Democratic turnout in Texas it also showed the limits of the exuberance for turning the state blue. In November that year, the Democrats running for statewide office were all beaten, just as they have been since 1994.
For Republicans, the primary was a vivid exhibition of the Trump effect on GOP politics. George P. Bush, the Texas land commissioner, won a contested primary.
Trump won Texas by 9 points in 2016. It was the smallest margin of victory by a Republican presidential candidate in Texas in 20 years, but Cruz dismissed talk of a Democratic takeover this fall.
“Left-wing rage may raise a bunch of money from people online, but I don’t believe it reflects the views of a majority of Texans,” he told reporters after winning the nomination.
Democrats will have a tough time winning statewide races in November despite the so-called “Trump effect” because they have fielded little-known candidates against top Republicans, such as Republican Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. Even Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has been indicted on felony securities fraud charges, clinched his party’s nomination unopposed.
Abbott will face either Lupe Valdez, who was Texas’ first Hispanic, lesbian sheriff, or Andrew White, who opposes abortion and whose father, Mark, was governor in the 1980s.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.