Texas May Offer Hints on ‘Trump Effect’ in 2018 Midterms

That would help local and regional Democratic candidates. O’Rourke outraised Cruz from the beginning of 2018 through mid-February by $1.5 million, although Cruz is still favored to win in the state. In early voting, they showed up at the polls at much higher rates than in the past, surpassing their Republican counterparts and making Republican leaders nervous. Evans, a white attorney who lives in the Atlanta suburbs, says she can eat into Republican advantages in the suburbs and even small towns.

“I would like to see a complete change in the top of the government”, said Bonnie Kobilansky, a 64-year-old nurse practitioner who voted Tuesday in the Democratic primary.

Trump has been divisive in Texas, where he receives about 83 percent approval among Republican respondents and 85 percent disapproval among Democrat respondents, according to polling from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. “That’s a good thing for November”. That Bush, the nephew and grandson of former presidents and a popular former Texas governor, may not be able to win his primary outright Tuesday has put a national spotlight on the race.

The party has candidates in every Texas congressional district – 36 of them – for the first time in 24 years.

Political campaign signs stand outside a polling station in Austin, Texas, March 5, 2018, ahead of the first statewide US primary of the year. One example is Kathaleen Wall, who is running for a southeast Texas seat now held by Rep. Ted Poe. “Great hair (Trump). Greater hair (Wall)”.

And the Democrats have had their own internal strife in Texas over congressional hopeful Laura Moser, who moved from Washington to her native Houston to try and unseat Culberson. Republicans retook the overall lead in turnout as results trickled in, but Democratic voting remained high.

Liberal groups also have cried foul. Moser, who has the backing of Our Revolution, Sen. The candidate, Daniel Biss, has been endorsed by Our Revolution, the political organization spun off of Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign.

The DCCC’s maneuvers – the very embodiment of “the establishment” that many voters hate – may have had the opposite of the intended effect and could end up propelling Moser into the May runoff.

Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, except for some far West Texas locations, such as El Paso, where they close at 8 p.m.

Neither that tragedy nor a mass shooting at a Texas church last fall played as dominant campaign issues in Texas, but with the GOP’s majority in Congress on the line this fall, Democrats came out in force.

The crowded field means that a runoff is likely unavoidable. The question is whether Moser, the liberal criticized by national Democrats, is among the two candidates.

Candidates to watch: Jay Hulings, a former federal prosecutor from San Antonio, has the support of Rep Joaquin Castro, D-Texas. Bernie Sanders’ political organization, is angling for a spot in an nearly certain runoff.

There are lots of Republican races, but some of them figure more directly into the conversation about what the GOP contingent in the 86th Legislature will look like, and who’ll be in the 150 seats when the House picks a new speaker.

There are several reasons for the focus on Democratic turnout in this primary.

So, what might we see in the months ahead? Democrats are trying to flip a gaggle of Republican-held districts, particularly in southern California, where Reps.

The outgoing lawmakers include powerful committee chairs including Jeb Hensarling, 60, who heads the House Financial Services Committee and Lamar Smith, 69, who chairs the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.

Eighteen Republicans are pursuing the opportunity to replace him as Republican nominee for the post when it comes up for election in November. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also cruised to his party’s nomination for re-election.

But Democrats haven’t won a statewide office in Texas since 1994, and that losing streak should continue this year.