Turnout in one Texas county is getting to the point where the Lone Star State could be in play for presidential nominee Joe Biden and the Democrats.
In Harris County, home to Houston and its suburbs, more people had voted by midday Tuesday than the respective populations of 11 other states, according to Lina Hidalgo, the county judge who oversees its elections.
—Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) November 3, 2020
By 3 p.m., total votes in Harris County broke 1.5 million, with more than 133,000 votes cast in person on Election Day by that point.
These numbers are well beyond most projections and put the Lone Star State in play for the Democrats.
—Jasper Scherer (@jaspscherer) November 3, 2020
Texas political observers have said 12 million is the magic number of votes that Democrats need to flip the state. Almost 10 million total votes were counted by Halloween, according to the US Elections Project.
—Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) November 3, 2020
Even if the Democrats fall short of winning statewide in Texas, these turnout numbers, coupled with the inroads the party made in the 2018 midterms, mean that both parties are likely to approach it more as a swing state than the traditional Republican stronghold it has been for four decades.
