someone on /pol/ just posted that one reason that the Texas primaries are slated for Democrats is because a lot of Texans are voting deliberately for shitty Dem candidates

Texas primaries are OPEN

Really?

meaning you don't have to be registered for the party to vote in their primaries

That's another alternative reason for boosts in early voting

i've heard this theory before and its stupid

Maybe, but this is how McCain got the nomination.

This is a possibility.

People know who to elect on the R side in Texas, perhaps you'd get more bang for your buck for voting on the other side.

@🎃Boo-ton🎃 lol it ain't stupid

it's a peripheral, peripheral variable

Maybe it's a long shot, but it could happen.

very minimal number of voters will register just to nominate bad candidates

nobody risks that

What is being risked this way? Everyone knows who'll win on the R side in Texas.

they risk leaving their party to the hands of idiot primary voters

the ones who vote for extremist candidates who can't win run-offs

That may be negligible, though.

just take my word for it,

this entryism idea has existed since the days of Lenin,

very, very few voters risk it

Total votes cast in the 2014 TX primaries (for comparison to tonight):
Governor
GOP - 1.3 million
DEM - 546K
Senator
GOP - 1.3 million
DEM - 507K

and what were the actual election results

Coming in .

now?

Senate 2014 Election Results: 2,855,068 (John Cornyn - GOP) , 1,594,252 (David Alameel - DEM)

So around 1 million more in comparison to the primaries

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_gubernatorial_election,_2014

for the Gubernatorial elections, roughly 1.3 million more in comparison to the primaries

Was it a particularly competitive year? Were there some new faces?

nope

2012-2014 Texas was much whiter

and more rural

Alright, so Abbott happened to be new in 2014, and so was Cruz in 2012.

the demographics have shifted a _lot_ since then

Yes, that is certainly a big problem.

Lots of lefties moving to Austin from what I hear

All the lefties at my HS want to move to Texas

Thing is, primaries in this case make sense if there's not as many Rs going to the polls, there's not any real competitors to Abbott or Cruz.

House elections don't motivate people too much either.

So yeah, it's very easy to see why there's not as much motivation to go to primaries this time around.