Letâs examine a few numbers from the Third Congressional District race that is heading for a May runoff between incumbent Van Taylor and former Collin County Judge Keith Self.
With 99% percent of the vote tabulated from Tuesdayâs Republican primary, Taylor has collected 31,168 votes.
Self has collected 16,959 ballots; third place went to Suzanne Harp, who collected 13,319 votes; fourth place went to Rickey Williams, who has 1,721 ballots; the fifth-place candidate is Jeremy Ivanovskis, with 814 votes. All told, the anti-Taylor vote count totals 32,133 ballots.
OK, theyâre still counting ballots at the Collin County Courthouse. I donât expect the percentages to change dramatically but consider the following.
Taylor needs to gin up a lot of return voters for the runoff, given that taken altogether, the challengers finished with nearly 1,000 more votes combined than Taylor reeled in. I donât know anything about Williams or Ivanovskis, but I do know that Self and Harp are cut from the same kooky cloth; they are The Donald Cultists. Indeed, Harp calls herself an âAmerica First Republican,â which is code for âI am a Trumpkin.â Moreover, Self has swilled The Big Lie potion about the 2020 election being âstolenâ from The Donald.
Do you get my drift here? Selfâs voters are highly motivated to turn out in the runoff. Harpâs supporters, I am going to presume, are far more comfortable with Self than with Taylor. They, too, might need little persuading to vote in the runoff.
As for Van Taylorâs bloc of supporters, they well might be a touch more apathetic than those who favor the surviving challenger or at least one of the also-rans in the Tuesday GOP primary.
Thus, the result of the runoff will depend on just two words: voter turnout. My advice to Rep. Taylor? Youâd better get busy, young man ⌠and start working the phone lines to those who voted for you in the primary.