Republicans gain ground in blue Harris County

HOUSTON (Nexstar) -- Just 10 days ago, Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a roaring rally for 30,000 Houstonians, featuring Democratic Senate candidate Colin Allred and superstars like Beyoncé and Willie Nelson. The event created a veneer of enthusiasm and hope for strong turnout in the blue bastion. On Tuesday, Democrats were left wondering what went wrong.

As it turns out, turnout was the lowest Harris County has seen in more than 20 years -- just 58% -- 10 points lower than the last presidential election in 2020. With a dearth of Democratic motivation, Republicans gained ground.

Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump both lost Harris County, but by margins that show considerable progress and make it that much harder for a Democrat to win statewide. In 2018, Cruz lost the county by 17 points. On Tuesday, he lost by nine -- nearly halving his margin. In 2020, Trump lost by 13 points. This time, he lost by just five.

"I was thrilled to see what President Trump did across the country," Harris County GOP Chair Cindi Siegel said. "We were just saying the same thing that President Trump said, which is, 'is your life better than it was four years ago?' And I think there were so many people from all walks of life, no matter their background, that were saying, 'No, it's not.'"

Democrats held onto city and county offices, but lost 10 judicial seats.

Harris County Democratic Party Chair Mike Doyle pointed to national trends and outside influences that spent as much as $30 million on ousting Democratic judges. $2 million of that came from Elon Musk's donation to the Judicial Fairness PAC, which supported Republican judicial candidates.

"I think the Trump Effect - this country is not over it yet, and so we're going to see how that shakes out over the next four years. But obviously Trump was able to influence a lot of folks to turn out for him," Doyle said. "What we're seeing here in Harris County is when you have a billionaire like Elon Musk or these guys from West Texas just dumping money to spread lies, unfortunately, it can affect some of our voters."

Doyle said the work begins now to prepare for 2026 and beyond.

"We actually had an incredible level of enthusiasm. We had the biggest ground game, like knocking on doors and calling people, that we've ever had. And we're obviously going to keep growing. It would be great if we had the resources to meet these media lies going on and on. I mean, if we had some portion of the Allred campaign on his commercials to show our voters what's really happening and how well justice is being delivered by Democratic judges, I think it'll have an impact," he said.

For Republicans' part, Siegal sought to capitalize on the outsized performance and reassure the nearly 4 million Democratic voters that Cruz and Trump will lead well.

"We all need to remember that we're Texans and we're Americans," she said. "We may have different philosophies on how to get from point A to point B, but we all want the same thing."