Election Day in Bexar County: Democrats and Republicans Make Their Final Push After Early Turnout Passed 2018
Early turnout reached 40.6 percent statewide and 39.7 percent in Bexar County — past the 2018 midterms — and on election eve the two county party chairs were still working the phones, the texts and the sidewalks, one cautiously optimistic and one admittedly anxious.
Election Day has arrived in Bexar County with the early vote already in the bank at a level this county has not seen in a midterm in eight years. Early turnout reached 40.6 percent statewide and 39.7 percent in Bexar County, exceeding the 2018 midterms, when Democrat Beto O'Rourke missed unseating U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz by less than 3 points, in the election-eve account published by KSAT and carried by T-SPAN. Texas has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since the mid-1990s, but the state has become a battleground as money pours in and the U.S. Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton — with Talarico leading in most polls, the Texas Tribune reports — tops the ballot.
The two county chairs described the final hours in very different tones, and both of their words are carried here as they said them. Bexar County Democratic Party Chairwoman Michelle Lowe Solis said Tuesday will, in her words, "be a good night for Democrats," while tempering her predictions: "We are feeling very cautiously optimistic about our chances for statewide. We feel very confident with our local Democrat elected and candidates. We feel cautiously optimistic about some of our congressional races as well," she said, adding, "We've been here before," and "we can't hope for a win; we have to work for a win." Lowe Solis estimated the key to victory for her party will be to get at least 60 percent Democratic turnout across the state, and she closed her pitch on prices: "Every lever of power in this county and in the state is run by Republicans. And if you don't like what's going on, you need to vote, and you need vote Democratic up and down the ballot."
Bexar County GOP Chairwoman Kris Coons acknowledged feeling "very anxious" heading into Election Day given talk of a blue wave, while saying she was feeling "solid" on three of the four congressional races and "hopefully very optimistic" about the newly redrawn 35th Congressional District, and "very good" though "not overly confident" on the statewide races. "That is everything," Coons said of Republican efforts to get voters to the polls, as both parties turned out supporters through calls, texts and block walking. Bexar County voters can vote at any county polling location on Tuesday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.
