While the Blue Wave was not the tsunami Democrats had hoped for, it did make itself felt in Texas.
In previous elections, candidates missing an (R) by their name considered themselves lucky to receive more than twenty or thirty percent of the vote in a State-wide race.
Last night, each one of those races broke the 4-0 barrier, with several candidates earning the vote from over 46 percent of Texans.
The most hotly-contested race, the position of U.S. Senator, ended with incumbent Republican Ted Cruz earning 50.9 percent of the vote to Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke’s 48.3 percent.
Libertarian candidate Neal Dikeman walked away with 0.8% in that race.
While Republicans remain in charge of state offices in Texas, they definitely had to put up a fight against Democrats in order to pull it off this year.
Politics aside, the mid-term Elections had Americans fired up, for a change.
With 15.8 million, the number of registered voters in Texas is at a record high. That represents a 4.6 percent increase over last year.
The number of registered voters exercising that right was also on the rise.
Typically, voter turn-out during mid-term elections is rather low.
The last mid-term, in 2014, saw less than 34 percent of registered Texas voters coming out to the polls
This year, voter turnout in Texas resembled a presidential election, with nearly 52 percent of registered voters casting a ballot.
Texas voter turnout for the last two Presidential Elections was just a little higher, rounding out to 59 percent, both in 2012 with President Obama and in 2016 with President Trump.
In addition, candidates appearing on the ballot this year and, nation-wide, represented a record number of women and minority groups. And, many of them were ultimately successful.
The renewed interest and participation of citizens on the ballot, and at the voting booth, is a positive trend that we should all encourage to grow.
Next year should prove even more exciting.
