Texas Democrats are on fire, more than doubling their primary turnout from the last midterm in 2014. Whether that surge will be enough to capture any statewide races for governor or U.S. Senate, for instance, remains to be seen.
...more than 1 million Democrats cast ballots in the party's primary election, compared to 1.5 million who voted in the Republican primary.
But where Texas Democrats might really make their mark is in three racially diverse GOP-held House seats won by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Those seats are held by GOP Reps. John Culberson (TX-07), Will Hurd (TX-23), and Pete Sessions (TX-32). Cook Political Report rates Culberson's race a "toss up" while putting the race for Hurd's and Sessions' seats in a slightly pinker "lean Republican" territory. The New York Times writes:
The progressive Laura Moser made the May 22 runoff despite a late attempt by the House Democratic campaign arm to derail her candidacy. Ms. Moser, an author and an organizer, trailed Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, a lawyer, but Ms. Fletcher failed to garner 50 percent of the vote, so they will face off again in a race that will be something of a proxy battle between the moderate and more liberal wings of the Democratic Party. [...]
In an even more Democratic-leaning seat, Gina Ortiz Jones, a lesbian and Iraq war veteran who would be the first openly gay member of Congress from Texas, was the top vote-getter in a district that stretches south from San Antonio to the Rio Grande and west to El Paso. The seat is held by Representative Will Hurd, a Republican who has narrowly won twice, but Democrats argue that Mr. Hurd will have a more difficult time surviving the backlash to Mr. Trump. She will face either Judy Canales, who served in Mr. Obama’s Agriculture Department, or Rick Treviño, a high school teacher, in the May runoff. [...]
And in a Dallas-area district, Representative Pete Sessions, a veteran Republican, is facing an energized left. Colin Allred, a former Obama Housing and Urban Development Department official and an N.F.L. veteran, advanced to the runoff and will compete against either Lillian Salerno, another official in Mr. Obama’s Agriculture Department, or a former television reporter, Brett Shipp, for the nomination.
Texas Democrats have a real chance to contribute to a big blue wave this November that could ultimately put Democrats back in control of the House. That would be an incredibly sweet outcome in the Lone Star State.