Joe Biden Receives Ominous Election News Out of Texas

The number of Democrats who voted early in the Texas presidential primaries has dramatically fallen compared to 2020 in the latest sign of a lack of enthusiasm for Joe Biden’s reelection bid.

There were 200,000 fewer Texas who opted to cast their ballots early in the primary races, with in-person voting taking place on Super Tuesday, March 5. During the 2020 primary season, 2 million people voted early, with the figure dropping to 1.8 million during the 2024 campaign.

Almost all of the 200,000 votes were on the Democratic side, the Texas Tribune reported, in what could be another warning signal regarding Biden’s hopes for a second term.

The incumbent is all but guaranteed to win the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination regardless of turnout, and it was always going to be a long shot that he would win Texas in the general election. The Lone Star state hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate for nearly 50 years, with Donald Trump, this year’s expected GOP nominee, beating Biden by six points in 2020.

The fall in the number of early votes, which historically favor Democratic candidates, in Texas suggests voters may not be buoyed by their choice of candidate this year.

Biden, 81, has long faced criticism about his age and cognitive ability as he seeks a second term in the White House, with polls also indicating Democratic voters are lacking fervor about Biden’s candidacy.

“I think there is less enthusiasm for the big matchup in 2024,” Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston, told the Texas Tribune. “We’ve been there, done that, and I think a lot of voters are kind of sitting on the sidelines until things change.”

Biden’s campaign team has been contacted for comment via email.

On Sunday, a New York Times/Siena national poll revealed that just 23 percent of Democratic primary voters said they were “enthusiastic” about Biden’s reelection bid, compared to 48 percent of Republicans who are enthusiastic about Trump running again in 2024.

James Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian University in the AddRan College of Liberal Arts, suggested the low early voting turnout in Texas could be down to the “relatively low high profile and high conflict races” in the state this year.

“Normally we have at least one interesting presidential primary and normally in off years we have the statewide officials like the governor and lieutenant governor on the ballot,” Riddlesperger told NBCDFW: “But this year, we only have the one state-wide race of note—and that’s the Senate race.”

The race in question is for Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s seat, where eight Democrats are challenging him, including the frontrunner rep. Colin Allred.

While Cruz is the favorite to win reelection, there have been polls where the Republican and Allred are tied in a hypothetical match-up, meaning the Texas Senate race could again be one of the most hotly contested in the country come November.