Harris County GOP Blames Straight Ticket for Losses and "Communist" Votes
Though Ted Cruz held onto his Senate seat for a second term, Republicans in Texas and the Houston area in particular saw tremendous losses in the 2018 elections. The Harris County Republican Party blamed straight-ticket voting for the “Beto Wave” in a recent statement.
“I am mad,” says Communications Director Vlad Davidiuk. “Mad at the avoidable losses wreaked across Texas by the Beto Wave of straight-ticket votes. That straight-ticket wave turned Fort Bend County Democrat, defeated Republicans on appellate courts across Texas, elected Democrats across the state to Congress and the Legislature, and swept every countywide vote in Harris County. Despite the largest and most ambitious campaign the Harris County Republican Party has ever run, we fell woefully short.”
This election was the last year Texas will offer one-touch straight-ticket voting. Governor Greg Abbott, who also won re-election, signed a law in 2017 ending the practice, but not until the 2020 election. In 2016, 65.3 percent votes cast in Harris County used the straight ticket option, with Democrats being 17 percent more likely to use it than Republicans. There was some Democratic opposition to HB 25, but the law was ultimately passed with only three Democratic votes. Included in the Republican-sponsored bill was an amendment that delayed implementation until after the midterms.
“Sadly, this straight-ticket Beto Wave was once avoidable,” says Davidiuk. “Texas is one of only eight states that still have straight-ticket voting. In 2017, other grassroots conservatives and I championed legislation to end straight ticket voting in Texas once and for all. But, to the detriment of Republicans across Texas, straight-ticket voting was left in place for one last election.”
Read more: https://www.houstonpress.com/news/the-last-year-of-straight-ticket-voting-hurt-republicans-says-gop-11025566
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