2022 Texas Midterms: Why your vote matters

The 2022 Texas midterm elections are fast approaching. This means Texans will cast their ballot for state leaders and their district-based representatives on November 8.

But the question is: will Texans get out and vote?

What the data says: Of the 21.8 million Texans who are eligible to vote, only 17.1 million were registered to vote in the 2022 Texas primaries, according to the Texas Secretary of State website. That’s 78.59% of registered voters for the eligible population.

Who turned out? About 1.9 million Republicans and a little over a million Democrats turned out in March for the Texas primaries, the secretary of state website reports. 

• Out of the total population eligible to vote, 8.94% of Republicans and 4.92% of Democrats turned out to cast their ballots.
• Out of the total population registered to vote, 11.37% of Republicans turned out versus 6.26% of Democrats. 

What history tells us: In the 2018 Texas midterm elections, when Texans were last at the polls to vote for the next Texas governor, only 53.01% of the eligible voting population voted. 

In 2018:

• 19.9 million Texans were eligible to vote.
• 15.7 million Texans registered to vote.
• 8.3 million Texans  turned out to vote for Texas governor.

What this means: Statistically in the last decade, a small portion of the Texas population are determining who will become our next state leaders and representatives.

Texas 2036’s goals: We want Texans to have confidence in the public institutions that serve them and are actively participating in governing their communities. In order to achieve this goal, we are encouraging Texans to register to vote by Oct. 11 and get out and vote this election season.