Anyone registered to vote can choose a Republican or Democratic ballot. Many of the people on the Democratic ballot (in my area) are running unopposed, so it was a good opportunity to try to get the least crazy people on the November ballot. Also, the republican ballot has 13 propositions that are not on the Democratic one, so that’s your only chance to have a say in those (and IMO they are really really bad!)
For the Texans specifically, I would like to add that Ken Paxton is trying to primary Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, Judge Barbara Hervey and Judge Michelle Slaughter of the Criminals Court of Appeals which is the highest level criminal appeals court in Texas. He is upset with them because they wouldn’t allow him to pursue voter fraud cases unilaterally, his office has to get permission from a local prosecutor now.
Ken Paxton has also put a lot of money into trying to primary state legislators who voted to impeach him, that is why so many incumbents do have challengers right now. Definitely look up your local races before going in to vote.
In case anyone is out of the loop on Attorney General Ken Paxton, I have one more link about the charges of securities fraud he was indicted on eight years ago. The case is finally going to trial in April.
My district has an R incumbent getting primaried by a Paxton shill but… I just can’t. I already held my nose and voted for some school board people in a general who are way to the right of me, but were obviously less crazy than their opponents, and fortunately it worked out. The incumbent here is barely any less crazy than the challenger, and shit, Paxton is not even on an ideological vendetta, but rather a personally corrupt one that is way more damaging to the GOP’s ability to get things done (which are always bad when not utterly mundane). Abbott’s obsession with vouchers that are always opposed by football-lovin’ rural republicans who don’t want their schools to close and their towns to die is the one that’s so baffling to me. I can pick through it and guess that it comes down to donations from people who stand to benefit from a private school industrial complex fueled by tax dollars, but it’s an odd hill to die on.
The GOP is toxic, and the Texas GOP doubly so. My adding to the number of people voting in a Dem primary will have to do.
Same. Thanks to who’s who can stomach it, but I’m not one of them. I used the League of Women Voters Vote411 project to research everyone on my ballot, and there were a couple races that were difficult because I liked multiple people running and had a hard time choosing just one.
Can’t see that happening in a race between two or more R’s.
I spent a couple of hours researching and all I got out of it was feeling like I needed to take a shower. Finally, I looked up the true Texas project, printed off their recommendations, and voted opposite those.