Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) believes early-voting Republicans will have a huge impact on the state and predicts his party will soon “overtake the Democrats” as the midterm elections heat up.
In an interview with CBS News Texas, Patrick, whose challenger is state Rep. Vicki Goodwin (D), said, “Democrats are already ahead, but we still have about 600,000 high-propensity voters who haven’t shown up yet.”
“So, one of my messages to Republicans is you need to come out from the bench and vote. We’ll probably catch up and pass the Democrats early, mid-week next week. We should have a sizable lead when we get to the end of early voting,” he continued.
Patrick then explained what’s at stake in the crucial midterm elections:
The message to undecided voters, and even some Democrats, is that this is not the Democratic Party of the past, not the Democratic Party of ten years ago, and not the Democratic Party of twenty years ago, that’s for sure. We’re not talking about slight changes here if someone is elected from the other party. We still believe in God, country, faith, family. We believe in Texas values. We believe in low taxes, we believe in being good for business, creating jobs, we believe in secure borders, and we’re not defunding the police, we’re supporting the police. We advocate putting criminals in jail instead of bailing out like we do in big cities across our state. So the difference is policy.
A recent analysis by The Associated Press (AP) shows a significant increase in early voting in states expected to decide which party controls the U.S. Senate compared with previous midterm elections.
The article reads: “In Texas, early voting is up 74% over 2022. In Kansas, that number has more than doubled. Early in-person and mail-in voting is also up more than 30% over the same period in 2022 in Maine, North Carolina and Ohio.”
In a video posted Saturday, Patrick encouraged rural Texas Republicans to vote early to keep the Lone Star State red:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Los Angeles) recently expressed optimism about Republican candidates in the midterm elections, despite polls showing Democrats doing better, Breitbart News reported on October 13.
“I’m in Texas today. We’re going to have three events here and then I’m going to – I think I’ve been to eight states this week. I’ve been doing this for almost two years and I’m telling you, the polls are wrong,” he said. “I’m telling you, I’m in a swing zone. I see energy in the crowd. To me, it feels like 2024. It’s not showing up in the polls, but we’re excited.”