Huge Early Vote in Largest Texas Counties
is Sign Blue Wave Could Top 2018 Version
Texas General Election Polls
General Election Rankings
Capitol Inside
October 20, 2026
The number of Texans who voted in person on Monday was dramatically higher in the state's largest counties than it had been for the midterm election in 2022 and substantially larger than the first day for casting ballots in 2018 when Democrats flipped 14 seats in the Legislature and two on the congressional map.
U.S. Senate contender James Talarico and the Democrats will expect to be the biggest beneficiaries of record turnouts for a midterm election in Harris and Dallas counties where almost 181,000 voters showed up at the polls on Monday in the two counties combined.
Harris County election officials recorded 104,659 votes that were cast in person on Monday when Dallas County had 76,069 voters turn out on the opening day for early voting in the Lone Star State. According to a Capitol Inside analysis, the Monday tally in Harris County was up 72 percent from the first-day count in 2022 and 66 percent higher than the number who voted early in the state's largest county in the blue wave election eight years ago.
With 76,069 ballots cast at the polls in Dallas on Monday, the second largest Texas county recorded a whopping increase of 133 percent over the total who voted on the first day for early voting in 2022. The Dallas count on the first day for early voting in person was 28 percent higher than it had been in 2018.
The number of Tarrant County voters who turned out on Monday was up 73 percent from 2022 and 20 percent higher than it had been in 2018 when Democrat Beto O'Rourke beat U.S. Senator Ted Cruz there in the race at the top of the Texas ticket that year. Tarrant officials said that 50,409 voters cast ballot there on Monday.
With 42,333 votes cast in person in Bexar County on Monday, the tally there represented an increase of 31 percent over 2022 and 24 percent over 2018. The first day of early voting in Hidalgo County on the southern border drew 20,530 voters to the polls - an increase of 40 percent over the tally there in 2018. The number of Cameron County residents who went to the polls on Monday was 35 percent higher than 2018 while the opening day tally in El Paso County was 30 percent more than the blue wave vote during the first midterm election on President Donald Trump watch.
Denton County recorded a 99 percent increase in the number of voters who turned out on Monday compared to the count in the suburban county on the first day for early voting four years ago. The Denton count on Monday was 82 percent more than it had been in 2018 on opening day for in person voting. Denton officials said that 34,739 voters cast ballots there in person on Monday.
The Monday tally in neighboring Collin County was only 4 percent higher than it had been on the first day for casting ballots at the polls in 2018. But the number of ballots that were cast in Collin County on Monday was 82 percent more than the tally four years ago.
While the turnout for rural counties where the Republicans will expect to run strong remained up in the air for Monday, the huge jumps over the last two midterm elections in the largest Texas counties appeared to bode poorly for Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton and the candidates in potentially close races on the ballot him.
more to come ...
| 
