TEXAS VOTES TODAY – AT 11:39 A.M. ET:  We are well into primary season.  One of the most critical states is Texas, where Democrats are making a serious, well-financed effort to cut into a traditional Republican stronghold.  The Dems are enthusiastic, almost fanatical.  In Japan in 1945 they would have been kamikazes.  Just kidding.  (Not really.)  From Fox: 

The midterm election season officially kicks off on Tuesday, when Texas voters head to the polls for the nation’s first primary of 2018.

With early voting already suggesting a record turnout for Democrats, and widespread speculation about what effect an endorsement by President Trump will have on Republican candidates, the Texas primaries are being looked at as both a bellwether for the rest of the nation - and a sign the red state could be turning purple more quickly than expected.

“What these primaries really boil down to is one issue: Trump versus anti-Trump,” Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, told Fox News. “There is relatively little talk about the issues for either party. It’s a race to the margins. Democrats are all against the president, while with Republicans it’s about staying close to Trump, and whether that hurts or helps them.”

While initially skipping some major Republican candidates in the Lone Star state, Trump went all in early last week when, in a series of tweets, supported a number of top-tier Texas Republicans.

"I want to encourage all of my many Texas friends to vote in the primary for Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and Attorney General Ken Paxton. They are helping me to Make America Great Again! Vote early or on March 6th," Trump tweeted.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush also got Trump’s endorsement, with the president saying the nephew and grandson of two former presidents “backed me when it wasn't the politically correct thing to do, and I back him now.”

Unlike Cruz, Abbott, Patrick and Paxton – incumbents who are expected to easily win the GOP nomination in their campaigns – Bush is facing a tough battle against his predecessor in the land office, Jerry Patterson. A recent University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll found that when voters were allowed to be undecided, Bush mustered only 36 percent of the vote in his race.

COMMENT:  We can't make any judgments until the votes are counted.  Republicans should be running scared.  Ted Cruz in particular should be concerned about his probable opponent in November, Beto O'Rourke, a left-wing congressman from El Paso who has all the charms of a true con artist.  O'Rourke has a chance of winning.

Texas is critical to the Republican Party.  But changing demographics give the Democrats a real shot at flipping the state in the near future.

Of course, the first midterm after a presidential victory is usually very tough on the president's party.  This year it can be particularly tough because the mainstream media, heading toward its own disaster, will be siding with the president's opposition.

March 6, 2018