Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick Says Republicans Will 'Pass the Democrats' in Early Voting This Week
Patrick concedes Democrats lead early turnout but says about 600,000 reliable Republican voters have not shown up yet. The turnout forecast is his own. An AP analysis puts Texas early voting up 74% over 2022.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Republican, told CBS News Texas that his party is behind in early voting but will catch up, Breitbart News reports.
His claim. "The Democrats have the early lead, but we have about 600,000 of the high-propensity voters who haven't shown up yet," Patrick said. He told Republicans to "get off the bench and get out and vote," and predicted the party would "probably catch up and pass the Democrats sometime early next week, midweek," with "a pretty healthy lead" by the end of early voting. His challenger is state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, a Democrat.
His pitch. Patrick said voters should not think of today's Democrats as the party of ten or twenty years ago. He listed what he says Republicans stand for: "God and country, and faith, family," low taxes, a secure border, support for police and keeping criminals in jail rather than out on bail.
The numbers. Breitbart cites an Associated Press analysis showing early voting is up sharply from the last midterm in Senate battleground states. "In Texas, early voting is up 74% compared with 2022. In Kansas it's more than doubled," the AP wrote, with Maine, North Carolina and Ohio each up more than 30%.
The echo. Breitbart ties this to House Speaker Mike Johnson, who said earlier this month that polls are "wrong" and that crowds "feel like 2024." We covered Johnson's comments.
Note for readers: the 600,000 figure and the forecast of a Republican lead are Patrick's and come from a short TV interview. The Breitbart piece gives no party breakdown of the vote so far. We did not watch the CBS segment.