Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Republicans will soon overtake Democrats in early voting, citing roughly 600,000 high-propensity GOP voters still sitting out.

Dan Patrick told interviewers that Democrats hold the early edge right now, but he framed that lead as temporary. He said a large bloc of reliable Republican voters has not cast ballots yet and argued the party will close the gap once they do.

The lieutenant governor’s message is a turnout call aimed at keeping Texas red and at reminding undecided voters what he says separates the two parties on taxes, borders, crime, and public safety.

In comments Breitbart reported, Patrick put the missing Republican universe in concrete terms.

"The Democrats have the early lead, but we have about 600,000 of the high-propensity voters who haven’t shown up yet."

He then pressed his own side to stop waiting.

"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."

Patrick is running for reelection against Democratic state Rep. Vikki Goodwin. He has also posted a video urging rural Republicans to vote early and hold the state. The timing of the CBS News Texas interview itself was not pinned to a calendar date in the available reporting, only that the video went up on a Saturday.

That turnout push fits a broader Republican warning that midterm majorities still hinge on conservative voters actually showing up, a point also stressed when Ted Cruz warned Republicans about the cost of staying home.

Patrick draws a hard line on Texas values

Patrick did not treat the race as a small policy tweak. He told undecided voters, and some Democrats, that the party on the other side is not the one they may remember from a decade or two ago.

"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."

He stacked the contrast on secure borders, support for police, low taxes, job creation, and keeping criminals locked up rather than released on bail in big cities. Those are the stakes he wants voters to weigh before Election Day.

Competitive Texas races are already drawing close national attention, including a CBS poll locking Paxton and Talarico in a Senate dead heat that shows how little margin either party can afford.

Early voting is running hot compared with 2022

Associated Press analysis carried in the same reporting found early voting well above the last midterm baseline. In Texas, early voting was up 74% compared with 2022. Kansas had more than doubled. Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio each showed increases of more than 30% in early in-person and mail voting at the same point in the cycle.

Higher volume does not by itself crown a winner. It does mean both parties are watching daily tallies and working the remaining pool of habitual voters. Patrick’s bet is that Republicans still have the larger unused high-propensity group in Texas and that once those ballots land, the early lead flips.

House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a similar tone while campaigning in the state. He said he was doing three events in Texas before heading to other stops and claimed the public polls were missing what he saw in person.

"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."

Johnson added that swing-district crowds felt like 2024 energy to him and that the intensity was not showing up in the surveys.

Republican leaders have spent weeks urging their base not to coast, including when Vance urged voters to stick with Republicans amid warning signs in prediction markets.

What still sits unanswered

The reporting does not provide raw early-vote headcounts by party at the moment Patrick spoke, only his 600,000 figure and the AP percentage comparisons to 2022. It also does not spell out whether his “pass the Democrats” claim tracks statewide ballots, his own race, or a broader midterm slate.

Those gaps matter for readers tracking every daily dump of returns. What is clear is the lieutenant governor’s public posture: Democrats are ahead early, Republicans have a deep bench of regular voters left, and he expects the order to reverse by midweek and widen before early voting ends.

Texas remains a central stage for the midterm fight, with other statewide contests still tight enough that even a half-point Paxton edge over Talarico underscores how turnout, not just messaging, will decide the map.

Democrats will keep banking early ballots. Patrick is telling Republicans the bench is still full, and that sitting it out is how you hand the state away.

If conservative voters want secure borders, backed-up police, and criminals kept in jail, they have to turn the prediction into ballots before the window closes.