Democratic voter turnout more than doubled compared with recent Texas primaries, helping drive more than 4.4 million ballots cast in this year鈥檚 statewide primary elections.
Because Texas hasn鈥檛 released a single statewide turnout number on election night, the recommended using a 鈥渂enchmark race鈥� 鈥� typically a high-profile statewide contest 鈥� to estimate participation.
Using the U.S. Senate race as that benchmark, roughly 4.48 million Texans voted in the primaries this year. That includes 2.3 million Democratic voters and 2.16 million Republican voters casting ballots overall.
The turnout this year from Texas Democrats marks a sharp increase from what the state saw in recent primary elections. That鈥檚 according to The Texas Newsroom鈥檚 analysis using the same benchmark method used to compare turnout in previous cycles.
Take 2022鈥檚 primaries, when Beto O鈥橰ourke won the Democratic nomination for governor. In that race, Democrats cast about 1.07 million total votes, according to . And using the presidential race as the benchmark in the 2024 Texas presidential primary 鈥� when then-President Joe Biden secured the Democratic nomination 鈥� Democrats cast roughly 982,000 ballots overall.
Republican turnout remained strong for this year鈥檚 primaries, but looking at the numbers using similar benchmarks, overall 2026 voter participation ranked in the middle of Republicans鈥� last two election cycles. In 2022, Republicans cast about 1.95 million ballots in their party鈥檚 primary. In 2024, Republicans recorded about 2.32 million votes.
The Democratic surge was evident during early voting as well, when Democrats outpaced Republicans in ballots cast before Election Day.
Political scientists say this year鈥檚 jump may reflect among Democratic voters. Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, recently told 四虎影院 that criticism of the Trump administration and a competitive Democratic helped drive interest this year.
鈥淒emocrats have generally not perceived that they had that great of a chance to win statewide office, and they haven't had especially interesting primaries,鈥� Wilson said. 鈥淏ut those two things aren't true this time.鈥�
