Monday is the first day of early voting for the March 1 party primary elections in Texas. Voters have until Feb. 25 to cast their ballots early. Election Day is March 1.
The Texas Legislature passed new maps for many legislative districts last year after getting new population data from the 2020 U.S. Census. That means some voters may find themselves in new districts.
"Who you were voting for two years ago might not be the same members of Congress, or other state House or state Senate seats," said Sam Taylor, assistant secretary of state for communications. "In order to check who's going to be on your ballot - go to VoteTexas.gov."
Texas has just over 17.1 million registered voters this year, which is a new record.
Early voting is getting underway just a few days after a federal district judge in San Antonio issued a ruling in a lawsuit over part of a new state law that limits the distribution of mail-in ballots. The law would prevent local election officials from urging voters to request mail-in ballots. The judge's ruling orders Texas not to enforce that specific part of the law against Harris County. The state of Texas is expected to appeal the decision.
Several incumbent elected officials in Texas are facing challengers in the primary this year.
"Part of the issue is that Greg Abbott specifically made some decisions that were disliked by many of the Republicans on the right, for instance some of the actions during the early days of the pandemic," University of Houston political scientist Brandon Rottinghaus said.
Two of Gov. Abbott's challengers in the Republican Party primary have some name recognition. Don Huffines previously served as a member of the Texas Senate and Allen West was the chair of the Republican Party of Texas.
"Huffines has been trying to get the right of the Republican Party from Greg Abbott for months and it really goes back to the early days of the pandemic. Allen West is definitely a firebrand, he was very vocal against Greg Abbott during the days of the pandemic," Rottinghaus said.
Incumbent Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also facing several challengers in the Republican Party primary, including Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, East Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert and former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman.
In races where no candidate gets a majority during the March 1st party primaries, a runoff election will be held on May 24th.
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