Reason Roundup

The Turnout Race

Plus: Alaska's blue-collar jobs, SpaceX success, grade inflation, and more...

Liz Wolfe | 9.29.2026 9:35 AM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Ron Adar/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

So far, Democrats are turning out way more than Republicans in contested statewide primaries across the country.

During midterms in President Donald Trump's first term, Democrats turned out with energy and enthusiasm and flipped 42 House seats to win the majority. It's possible we're now gearing up for a repeat, if the primaries are any indication.

The Reason Roundup Newsletter by Liz Wolfe Liz and Reason help you make sense of the day's news every morning.

Δ

URL

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Email(Required)

SUBSCRIBE

"This primary season, perhaps the starkest example of Democratic enthusiasm came in Texas, a state Mr. Trump carried by 14 percentage points two years ago. Both parties had hard-fought and expensive Senate primary campaigns there this year," reports The New York Times. "About 150,000 more people voted in the Democratic primary between James Talarico, the victor, and Representative Jasmine Crockett than in the Republican contest between Senator John Cornyn and the state's attorney general, Ken Paxton, who would go on to win in a runoff."

This is a marked change from 2022, "when there were 900,000 more votes in the state's Republican primaries for state offices than in its Democratic contests," adds the Times. "Even in 2018, during the last Democratic wave election, 500,000 more people voted in the Republican Senate primary than in the Democratic one."

It's looking like this year might be extremely good for Democratic voter turnout, if the Times' projections are any indication: "Compare 2022 to 2026: Twenty-two states held contested primary elections in both parties for governor or Senate. Democratic turnout increased in three-quarters of........

© Reason.com