Last night, the state of Texas dodged a bullet. It wasn't named Beto (or Lupe). The bullet was named Straight Ticket Voting.
This past election was the last one that Texas voters were able to punch a single button and be done with their civic duty. Every election from here on out will require the voter to take the time and read the ballot.
And this is good news for Republicans. Because Republicans never voted straight ticket in the numbers that Democrats did.
You saw the effects of this in Harris County--Beto beat Cruz by about 200,000 votes. Which was almost the same margin as the difference between Straight Ticket Democrat voting and Straight Ticket Republican voting.
With so many Democrats punching a single button, you saw all the Republican county judges thrown out of office. We witnessed the loss of Ed Emmitt as county judge to a 27 yr old political newbie who has never even attended a single Commissioners' Court meeting.
Yep. Straight Ticket voting generally sucks for Republicans.
So, starting in 2020, the GOP can breathe a small sigh of relief. This Dem advantage has gone away.
Now the state-level GOP needs to get its shizzle together, recruit decent candidates--guys like Dan Crenshaw and Chip Roy--and actually go out and educate the voters, and get them enthused about reading the WHOLE ballot.
Because, unfortunately, Democrats can read ballots, too.
Sandra Peterson
Follow me on Twitter @janevonmises
Photo by Getty Images