*** Election Night Livewire *** Texas Goes First: Primaries in Lone Star State Kick off Midterm Elections

Voters in Texas will set the tone for the beginning of the 2022 midterm election cycle with the first regularly scheduled primaries taking place Tuesday.

Voters will decide if GOP Gov. Greg Abbott will represent the party again, or if he will face a runoff later in the spring, and will decide similar fates for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton. Key congressional races throughout Texas will also help determine the future of the GOP, with proxy wars playing out in several, particularly in the eighth congressional district in a battle between Morgan Luttrell and Christian Collins.

Rep. Van Taylor (R-TX) is another one to watch, as a gnarly sex scandal smacked him right before the election–but it may have been too late to make a difference. How Taylor fares–and whether he can avoid a runoff–remains to be seen, but is one of the bigger stories to watch on Tuesday night.

Democrats will likely nominate former Rep. Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke as their gubernatorial candidate, and also face intra-party battles in key congressional districts, especially that of Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX). Cuellar is aiming to hold back a primary challenge from socialist Jessica Cisneros.

Perhaps more important than any particular race, though, is how demographic shifts–specifically among Hispanic voters in the Rio Grande Valley, who have been swinging hard towards the GOP in recent years–play out. Whether that trend continues, intensifies, or slows, is something to watch.

What’s more, former President Donald Trump has more than 30 endorsements on the line in Texas on Tuesday. While it is as yet unclear, Trump very well could go undefeated–though some of his candidates could end up in runoffs. How powerful the Trump endorsement remains with him out of office is a key factor on the line in Texas this evening as well.

In addition to all that, it is impossible to ignore that Democrat President Joe Biden and his ally House Speaker Nancy Pelosi–another leftist Democrat–scheduled Biden’s first State of the Union address during the timeframe in which the results will be streaming in from Texas. Perhaps that is to try to keep the subject off the midterms as long as possible, as the next scheduled primaries are not until May, especially as Biden’s approval rating lags significantly and his agenda is halted in Congress despite Democrat majorities in both chambers.

Follow along here for live updates as the results pour in from across Texas after the polls close at 7 p.m. local time in Texas–8 p.m. eastern time.

UPDATE 7:55 p.m. ET 

Minutes away from the polls closing, Gov. Abbott makes a last second push for more votes:

Polls close in less than TEN MINUTES! 
 
If you are in line, make sure to stay in line. 
 
Thank you to all those who made their voices heard in this election!
 
El Paso & Hudspeth counties – you have another hour to VOTE!

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 2, 2022

The polls close in most of Texas at 8 p.m. eastern time–but in El Paso and Hudspeth counties they remain open until later. Results are expected to be mostly final and reported in the next few hours by around 1 a.m. eastern.