VIDEO -- Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Republicans Will Soon 'Pass the Democrats' in Early Voting

VIDEO — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick: Republicans Will Soon ‘Pass the Democrats’ in Early Voting Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) believes Republicans who vote early will make a huge difference in his state, predicting his party will soon “pass the Democrats” as the midterm elections heat up. During an interview with CBS News Texas, Patrick, whose challenger is state Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D), said “The Democrats have the early lead, but we have about 600,000 of the high-propensity voters who haven’t shown up yet.” “So, one of my messages to the Republicans is you need to get off the bench and get out and vote. We’ll probably catch up and pass the Democrats sometime early next week, midweek. We should have a pretty healthy lead when we go into the end of early voting,” he continued. Patrick then explained what was at stake in the crucial midterm elections: The message to voters who are undecided, or even to some Democrats, is that this is not the Democrat Party of old, not ten years ago, not 20 years go, for sure. We’re not talking about a slight change here if someone gets elected from the other side. We still believe God and country, and faith, family. We believe in Texas values. We believe in low taxes, We believe in being pro-business, creating jobs, we believe in a secure border and not to defund police but to support police. We believe in keeping criminals in jail and not out on bail as we have all over our state in big cities. So the difference is the policies. Early voting has increased significantly compared with the previous midterm election in states expected to decide which party controls the U.S. Senate, according to a recent Associated Press (AP) analysis. “In Texas, early voting is up 74% compared with 2022. In Kansas it’s more than doubled. Maine, North Carolina and Ohio also have seen increases of more than 30% in early in-person and mail voting compared with the same point in 2022,” the article read. In a video posted Saturday, Patrick encouraged rural Republicans in Texas to vote early in order to keep the Lone Star State red: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) recently expressed optimism about Republican candidates in the midterm elections, even though polls were suggesting Democrats were faring better, Breitbart News reported October 13. “I’m in Texas today. We will do three events here, and then I will head — I think I have got eight states this week. I have been doing this for almost two years, and I’m telling you, the polling is wrong,” he stated. “I’m telling you, I’m on the ground in the swing districts. I am seeing huge energy in crowds. It feels like 2024 to me. That’s not registering in the polls, and we’re fired up.”