Texas Primary Tests GOP's Right Turn In Start To Midterms
Newsy
After Texas, primaries in other states won't resume until May. The results could be viewed for months as a measure of the nation's political mood.
Polls are beginning to close in Texas, where primary races Tuesday are kicking off a long, bruising midterm season by testing whether voters reward Republicans for pushing America's largest red state even farther right.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott appears well positioned to secure his party's nomination. He began his campaign with more than $50 million and has staked out hard-line positions on guns and immigration. But even some GOP voters felt he had gone too far by championing the nation's strictest abortion law.
"That's where I think Greg Abbott and the current Republicans kind of crossed the line," said Eric Medrano, 25, a longshoreman in Houston who voted for one of Abbott's far-right challengers, Don Huffines. He added, "I don't believe (abortion) should be banned at such an early, early stage."