Texans weigh red, blue contest after launching primary in U.S. midterm cycle

With more than 75 percent of the votes counted, nearly 800,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted for a candidate for governor, a gap far larger than the last midterm primary election in Texas four years ago, media reported.

HOUSTON, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Much more Republicans than Democrats across the second most populous U.S. state of Texas turned out in Tuesday's primary election, which ushered in the country's 2022 midterm cycle, votes counting showed on Wednesday.

Voters sent Democrat Beto O'Rourke to challenge two-term Republican Governor Greg Abbott in November and Republican George P. Bush to face off against Republican incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton during runoffs in May.

With more than 75 percent of the votes counted, nearly 800,000 more Republicans than Democrats voted for a candidate for governor, a gap far larger than the last midterm primary election in Texas four years ago, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Lawrence Jackson, a Navy Vietnam war veteran, retired oil and gas worker and lifelong Democrat, voted for a straight Democratic ticket and was disappointed that Texas's Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick handily won reelection outright with at least 50 percent plus 1 vote, and therefore no runoff is needed with any Republican or Democrat challenger.

"I didn't expect a large turnout because this was the first election since Gov. Abbott and Patrick spearheaded the Texas Legislature's vote to restrict voting by eliminating drive-through and late-night voting and reducing the number of polling places with heavy Democrat and minority populations," Jackson, 77, a resident of Houston, told Xinhua.

Voters wait in line to cast their ballots in the Texas 2022 primary election in San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on March 1, 2022. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

Abbott and Patrick were also behind the state law allowing permitless carry of gun purchases and the law that criminalizes abortion and puts a bounty on any woman who seeks to have the procedure or anyone who helps her, including the Uber driver who drives her to the clinic.

Jackson said he believes that despite the preponderance of Republican wins, Texas is going from a "red" conservative state to a "blue," more progressive state, though there are large swaths of Texas that are untouched by the more left-wing mind-set and are not yet even purple.

Abbott is facing a November runoff with O'Rourke, seen as a progressive by many Texan voters, and it "is something that we would not have seen a year or more ago," Jackson said.

The early primary is important to elect more progressive candidates who agree that the major issues facing Texas are fair housing, jobs and education, he said. "It's time to give everybody the right to vote and the right to responsible gun ownership. To elect more people who want to restrict guns, not votes."

Houstonian Ronnye Cowell, 62, a retired Democrat, sees three important issues concerning Texan voters as curbing crime, boosting border security and containing taxes.

The Texas primary is definitely a preview of the 2024 presidential election, "offering the motivation to vote," Cowell told Xinhua.

A supporter of former Republican President Donald Trump, Robert Chase, 64, voted for a straight Republican ticket on Tuesday.

Chase supervises a multinational pipefitting group for a Houston construction company. He told Xinhua that in his view, border security is the top issue in Texas and the whole country today.

A woman walks to a polling station to cast her ballot in the Texas 2022 primary election in San Antonio, Texas, the United States, on March 1, 2022. (Photo by Nick Wagner/Xinhua)

Chase also said he believes that an unchecked number of criminals come across the U.S.-Mexico every day, and Trump was cheated by Democrats in the 2020 election.

While Chase is unhappy that Abbott has to contest against O'Rourke to serve his third term as governor, retired public relations specialist Rebecca Morgan told Xinhua that if Republicans like Abbott, Patrick and Paxton are all successful in their quest to remain in Texas's top spots, she might consider moving away from the state where she was born to a more progressive state.

"I think Texas really is becoming more progressive, at least less crazy with the whole pro-Trump far right wing thing," she said. "But if that's true, it is happening at a snail's pace. I just don't think that I have the patience anymore."

The Texas primary is also the first statewide election in which voters will cast their ballots following the redistricting based on the results of the 2020 national census, as well as the first statewide election after Texas enacted its controversial voting law in December.

Democrats haven't won a statewide election in Texas since 1994.