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'Suppression:' Texas Primary Turnout...Increases, Including Among Democrats

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  March 04, 2022 10:15 AM

Spencer touched on this yesterday, but it's worth amplifying, given the hurricane of hyperbole and fear-mongering unleashed by the Left over Texas' new voting law.  Much like we saw in Georgia, progressives and their 'news' media allies framed Republican-led election law changes as racist voter "suppression" schemes, even though each state's statutes did things like expand early voting in meaningful ways.  In order to support the narrative, leftists have tried to portray any departure from temporary, pandemic-era emergency elections measures as efforts to suppress voting.  The underlying assumption is that higher turnout leads to Democratic victories (that's not what happened in November's high-turnout gubernatorial election in Virginia, where Gov. Youngkin is far more popular than President Biden) so Republicans are trying to drive down turnout by making it harder to vote.  Speaking of Biden -- whose occasional calls for unity are emptier than ever -- he has gone even further with related lies and demagoguery:


On Tuesday, Texas held its first election under its new system.  Behold, suppression:


We know that Republicans are highly motivated this cycle, given the failures of the Biden administration and the overreach of total Democratic control of Washington:


More details, via Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal:

Republican enthusiasm was on display Tuesday in Texas, in the country’s first 2022 primary. Four years ago, 1,068,463 Democrats voted in the Texas primary while 1,549,573 Republicans did. This week, with a few scattered ballots still to be counted, 1,057,664 Democrats have voted while 1,935,321 Republicans turned out, an increase of more than 23% for the GOP over 2018. Turnout for Republicans seems to have exploded in largely Hispanic South Texas. With almost every ballot counted, the GOP turnout was up 162% in Cameron County over 2018 and 113% in Hidalgo, both of which lie in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. Republican turnout was also up 50% in Nueces County, dominated by Corpus Christi, and up 51% in El Paso. Hispanics joining the GOP will hurt the Democrats badly in Texas and outside it.

That's a lot of people of color not being "suppressed," and in fact showing up to vote in Republican primaries, many for the first time.  Result:

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It's fairly well-established that Republican turnout has not been dampened by the Texas "voter suppression" law.  But the Left's story is that the laws were designed to hurt Democratic turnout.  How's that holding up?  In 2018, Democrats were extremely motivated all across the country.  The current enthusiasm gap cut in the opposite partisan direction, based on similar but reversed dynamics.  In the Lone Star State, approximately 1.04 million Democrats showed up to vote in their high-profile Senate primary that year, choosing Robert O'Rourke to challenge Sen. Ted Cruz in the general election.  It's now four years later. Democrats are relatively demoralized, with much less excitement buzzing around the 2022 statewide races on that side of the aisle.  Plus, a "voter suppression" law is now in place.

How many Democratic voters (including a substantial percentage of black voters) turned out this week?  Approximately 1.06 million, and counting.  Yes, Democratic turnout was up over 2018, despite all the factors mentioned above.  Sure, there's been some population growth in the state over the intervening years (thanks largely to the opportunities created by conservative governance), but a "suppression" law, coupled with much lower engagement and intensity among Democrats, should have driven down participation, no?  The opposite happened.  Fear-mongering narratives hardest hit.  Before you go, please enjoy this flashback.  Remember when Texas Democrats fled their state to delay advancement of the "voter suppression" bill?  


I repeat: Their side's turnout just increased, after the bill's implementation.  Good work, gang.  And since we mentioned Georgia above, I'll leave you with the latest nonsense from the Queen of Election Lies and 'Jim Crow' demagoguery: