A record 7.4 million Texans voted early in the 2026 midterm elections, according to preliminary reports from the secretary of state’s office. This brings turnout to around 40%, matching the current record for a midterm election scheduled for 2018.
The in-person early voting period ended Friday.
“We’re not going to reach presidential levels, but it’s certainly a high turnout,” said Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University. “The question that always arises is, and this happens every time we try to interpret early voting numbers: How many votes are actually left available?
More than 19 million Texans are registered to vote, an increase of 2.2% compared to the November 2024 presidential election.
This year’s election includes several high-stakes contests that have generated national interest. State Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Austin, and Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican from McKinney, are engaged in a tight race for a U.S. Senate seat. And state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, an Austin Democrat, is challenging Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is seeking a historic fourth term.
Participation data published on Saturday is not final and may be incomplete. Each county is responsible for reporting turnout. Some counties publish earlier than others. And the mail-in votes should continue to arrive.
Earlier this week, turnout lagged behind the 2018 election, when U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke challenged U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz — and came closer than any Democrat to winning statewide office.
Matt Angle, a Democratic strategist, said the increase in last-minute voters likely means more Hispanics and blacks are voting.
“That doesn’t mean the Democrats are going to win, it means the Republicans are going to lose,” he said. “It is a big mistake to make such assumptions, but it shows that the structure of the electorate is such that Democrats have a chance of winning.”
Preliminary reports show that the state’s urban centers are seeing increased turnout rates, which Angle said are “areas where Democrats are more competitive.”
The state’s most populous counties, such as Harris, Dallas and Tarrant, are seeing higher turnout than previous midterm elections and are “also those with more diverse voters. … That doesn’t mean those shares couldn’t have been made up on Election Day, but in general what happens is the electorate is a little more diverse on Election Day.”
Texans voted 9 million times in early voting in the 2024 general election, reaching a 49% turnout among registered voters at the time.
Texans surpassed turnout in the 2022 midterms, when 5.5 million voted early, capping a 31% turnout among registered voters.
The highest turnout in the last election was in 2020, when 57% of registered voters – or 9.7 million people – cast ballots.
Election day is Tuesday. For more details on how to vote, see our voter guide here.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Disclosure: Rice University has financially supported the Texas Tribune for the past five years. The Texas Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that is funded in part by donations from its members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial support plays no role in our journalism. Find a full list of them and more information about our financial and disclosure policies here.
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