Early Voting Surges Across Hotly Contested Senate Races, Setting Records

High interest in a range of closely contested Senate races is driving record early turnout for Tuesday’s midterm elections, with South Carolina leading the pack with a 83-percent jump in early voting over the same point in 2022, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.The news agency’s review also found a 50-percent jump in early voting in Texas and increases of 30 percent or more in Maine, Michigan, North Carolina and Kansas. All are among the most hotly contested states and critical to Republican hopes of retaining control of the Senate.President Trump is planning to attend campaign rallies on Sunday at Salina, Kansas, and at Dubuque, Iowa, another critical state that has come into play in recent weeks and where the AP saw a 28-percent increase in early voting. The rallies were unexpectedly rescheduled after the White House had announced plans for the president to hold online rallies instead.Nationwide, more than 43 million Americans had voted as of Wednesday, according to the AP’s survey which looked at 47 states and Washington, D.C. That is nearly 10 million more than at the same point in 2022, when early voting totals were already at a historic high.Party affiliation was not available for most of those early voters, the agency said, but in states where it was, about 6.8 million Democrats and 5.2 million Republicans had already voted in person or by mail. Republicans point out that their voters are more likely to come out on Election Day and that persons do not necessarily vote for the party with which they are registered.The most dramatic surge in early voting, at 83 percent, was seen in South Carolina, where Darline Graham, the sister of the late senator Lindsey Graham, has been locked in an unexpectedly tight race to retain the seat held by her brother for almost 24 years. President Trump carried the state by almost 18 percentage points in 2024.A similarly impressive surge was registered in Texas, where candidate James Talarico is seeking to become the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1988. More than 6.3 million Texans had voted early as of Wednesday, the AP reported, compared with 4.2 million at the same point four years ago.The race for governor of Texas, between the Republican incumbent, Greg Abbott, and his Democratic challenger, Gina Hinojosa, has also excited high interest. In a potentially worrying sign for Republicans, the AP said 862,700 people had voted as of Wednesday in Harris County, a reliably Democratic stronghold that includes Houston, compared with 564,500 at the same point in 2022.Senator Ted Cruz, who is not up for re-election this year, voiced alarm at the voting trend in an interview reported by Politico this week, saying, “Understand, we could lose Texas. Let me repeat that: We could lose Texas. And by the way, not just the Senate race. We could lose every single statewide race in Texas. That’s how close these numbers are.”Other states showing a dramatic increase in early voting include Maine, where Senator Susan Collins is fighting to retain her seat, at 44 percent, and North Carolina at 36 percent. The Democratic candidate in that state,a former governor, Roy Cooper, has been consistently leading in the polls.The early turnout stands at 34 percent in Kansas, where frustration over high fuel prices and beef imports has helped the Democratic challenger, Adam Hamilton, to mount an unexpectedly strong challenge to the Republican incumbent, Roger Marshall; and at 32 percent in Michigan, where a progressive Democrat, Abdul El-Sayed, is locked in a tight race to become the first Muslim elected to the Senate.

Early Voting Surges Across Hotly Contested Senate Races, Setting Records

Early Voting Surges Across Hotly Contested Senate Races, Setting Records

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