The Colbert effect: Is national drama driving Texas voter turnout?
Texans are running to the polls in droves to cast their early votes in the state’s primary election, fueled largely by a string of high-profile controversies.
Stephen Colbert’s interview with U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico, Gov. Greg Abbott handing the Justice Department a complete list of registered voters and a redistricting fight are among events Rice University Political Science Professor Melissa Marschall said are likely prompting Dallas- and Houston-area voters to cast their ballots.
“For some, they feel that our democracy is under threat and people have been marching, protesting, and we’ve seen what’s been going on in the Twin Cities with ICE, and the message organizers are saying is vote,” she said. “It’s the ballot box where we’ll see change, and a lot of folks are exercising their right to vote.”
Already, results from the first three days of early voting, which opened Tuesday, showed that turnout in Texas’ second-largest county, Dallas County, more than doubled, with 51,694 ballots returned for the 2026 primary compared with 21,694 in the first three days of 2024.
For Harris County, which is the state’s largest county and includes Houston, 70,220 ballots were returned so far this year, compared with 47,895 returned in the same time period in 2024.
Election Day for the Texas primary is on March 3.
“I think it’s primarily the Senate race and people being fed up,” Marschall said.
An unusually high primary turnout
Marschall took note of the low voter turnout in the 2024 primary, which involved presidential candidates. She said that for 2026, people could be using the midterm election to show they’re fed up with either Trump’s or Abbott’s leadership.
In the Senate race, Democratic candidates James Talarico, Jasmine Crockett and Ahmad Hassan are vying for the lone nomination. Hassan has largely gone unnoticed by national media, but the fight between Crockett and Talarico has become the point of coverage since Crockett, a representative for Texas’ 30th Congressional District, announced her Senate run in December.
Crockett brought name recognition to the race as she’s been a vocal critic of the Trump administration and traded insults with former Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican. For Talarico, the state representative is known in Travis County, where he lives.
But a kerfuffle between Colbert and CBS over Talarico’s shuttered Tuesday night “The Late Show” interview gave the candidate a $2.5 million bump in donations. Colbert claimed CBS’ lawyers told him to pull the interview due to the equal time rule. The network later said that “The Late Show” wasn’t prohibited from showing the interview, but was given legal advice that it could potentially “trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates.”
Marschall said the controversy isn’t likely to help at the polls, as late-night television isn’t regularly watched by everyone. The YouTube video has more than 8.2 million views as of Friday, more than double the amount the show reached at its peak on CBS at 3.1 million views, according to Reuters.
But more Democrats in Harris County are heading to the polls than their Republican counterparts. As of Friday, 89.8% more Democratic voters returned their ballots since the start of early voting compared to the same time period in 2024.
“There’s been a lot of talk that ‘this is the year’” for Democrats, Marschall said. “There are folks who think that Talarico can beat the Republican nominee.”
Harris County Republicans pushed an 8.8% increase in turnout compared with 2024. Candidates for their Senate race include incumbent John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt, who represents parts of Houston in the House. According to Fox News, Trump has withheld his endorsement for the race.
“For Democrats, the hope they could win is getting out there,” Marschall said. “For republicans, they have three candidates out there who are possibly fed up with Cornyn.”
Looking to November, Marschall expects to see similar numbers, but said more people could show up to the polls if another national controversy hits.
“The margin is so close, and it’s a very competitive environment,” she said.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
