Millions of Texans voted early. Here’s what mattered to them.

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Election Day is here. And while millions of Americans will cast their ballot today, most Texans who will vote have already done so.

In fact, according to the Secretary of State, 9 million Texans have made up their mind on a long list of races, including the hotly contested U.S. presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, and the U.S. Senate contest between incumbent Ted Cruz and his Democratic challenger Colin Allred.

Voting is both patriotic — and personal. Every person who shows up at a polling center has a reason why.

To better understand the motives that drove Texans to vote this year, The Texas Tribune collaborated with The Texas Newsroom, a consortium of the state’s public radio stations, The Amarillo Tribune and Fort Worth Report to interview voters during early voting.

As expected, abortion, immigration, and the economy weighed heavily on many voters. In certain parts of the state, local issues also factored.

Here’s what we heard.

The compassionate woman versus the showman

EL PASO — Laura Melendez usually waits until Election Day to cast her ballot.

But on Texas’ first day of early voting, she showed up 30 minutes early to snag a place in line at a Central El Paso polling center. After she cast her ballot, Melendez strolled near the area cordoned off for voters. She snapped a few photos of the crowd, which had grown considerably since she voted. It snaked past clothing boutiques and video game stores in the shopping center that doubled as a polling place.

The 72-year-old retiree had just voted for Vice President Kamala Harris.

She said she doesn’t like how President Donald Trump appears to cozy up to foreign adversaries.

“I’m sure Trump has all these allies in other countries that love him, and he loves them, but that’s not the kind of president we want,” she said. “His allies are the bad guys.”

Trump is more of an entertainer and a media personality, she said. Harris is someone who’ll command respect on the global stage.

“She’s more respected than Trump is,” she said. “We want a woman who’s going to be more compassionate, who’s going to listen to people. And not put on a show.”

Melendez said she was aghast after learning that Trump sent Russian President Vladimir Putin testing equipment at the onset of the COVID–19 pandemic, even as Americans were scrambling to get tested and, in some cases, dying from their illnesses.

“What? To make points with Putin or what? No, that was uncalled for,” she said.

Immigration is another top priority, she said. And she was disappointed that Republicans sabotaged the bipartisan border security bill earlier this year. Republicans, she said, don’t want to work toward a solution.

“We’re never going to get anywhere,” she said. — Julian Aguilar, The Texas Newsroom

Wishing for better candidates

AMARILLO — Traffic in this Panhandle city was congested during lunchtime. On the first day of early voting, however, it wasn’t from people rushing to get a bite to eat in the middle of their work day. People were flocking to vote centers.

At Amarillo’s Public Library’s Northwest Branch, the line went past the awning and trees offering shade outside and well into the sidewalk in front of parked cars.

Danny Bryant, a 66-year-old man who has lived in Amarillo all his life, didn’t keep track of how long he waited in line. He was just ready to vote on Proposition A — the local ballot initiative in Amarillo that aims to further restrict abortion access by prohibiting the use of the city’s roads and highways to someone seeking an abortion in another state where it’s legal. It would also prohibit individuals or other entities from “aiding and abetting” abortions, whether it be through providing information, funds or any other means that would result in someone having an abortion.

It was the only thing on the ballot, which has been called the most important election in this lifetime by advocates and lawmakers, that inspired him to come in. Though, he declined to say which way he voted.

As for the rest of the ballot, he wasn’t impressed.

“I don’t like either candidate for president, so it was a question of which one’s policies I thought would be better for the country,” Bryant said. “I’m just sad Americans can’t get better candidates to run for president.” — Jayme Lozano Carver, Texas Tribune

A longtime Democrat switches his support to Republicans over transgender issues

ARLINGTON — Justin Galloway had hoped to beat the Election Day crowd, but when he arrived at the Tarrant County Subcourthouse, the line was out the door. Thankfully, it moved quick, he said.

For the last 15 years, Galloway has supported Democrats — both as a voter and as a party volunteer.

However, the debate surrounding trans women in sports and gender-affirming care for minors led Galloway to change his party affiliation. He does not support puberty blockers or surgery for children who experience gender dysphoria.

“Anything done before puberty I don’t think is appropriate for that age,” he said.

The issue led Galloway to leave the Stonewall Democrats, a group that champions LGBTQ+ issues among Democrats. He has since become involved with the local Log Cabin Republicans, which has supported gay and lesbian Republicans, and other Libertarian groups in North Texas. Along the way, he said he’s found people with similar experiences as him.

“I have a lot more in common with them than I thought I did,” he said. “I was stuck in an echo chamber where I only heard from voices that thought like me instead of listening to people with opposing voices. That really did change my mind once I opened myself up to other ideas.”

Galloway said he also voted with border security in mind. He said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have “totally failed on that front.”

“I don’t see a path forward with the current administration regarding the border,” he said. “We need somebody new.” — Kailey Broussard, KERA

Reproductive rights are worth standing in line for

FORT WORTH — Ken Shimamoto said voting is so important to him that the first day of early voting in Texas is better than any other holiday.

“This is like Christmas morning for me,” he said. “It’s my favorite day of the year.”

Shimamoto, 67, is a retired writer and veteran. As he waited over an hour in line this year, he said he felt a sense of urgency for this election.

Reproductive rights and economic inequality were top of mind for Shimamoto. If Harris doesn’t win, Shimamoto said, democracy could be at risk.

“All the progress that’s been made in our society in the last hundred years goes out the window,” Shimamoto said. “And I think that’s worth fighting for. And it’s definitely worth standing in line for an hour to cast my vote.”

Shimamoto said this time around he’s seen more yard signs and campaigning for Republican candidates and wishes he’d seen the same for Democratic candidates.

“I’m not an optimist, but sometimes things happen that you don’t think can happen,” Shimamoto said. “The last seven or eight years have been like one big anxiety attack. And I think people are tired of that. So we shall see for sure.” — Penelope Rivera, KERA

Despite concern over Gaza policy, this voter chose Harris

McALLEN — On the second day of early voting, Kelly Monroy wore a purple T-shirt that read “Hot People Vote.”

She was one of the 1,491 people who voted at Lark Community Center in McAllen that Tuesday.

The issue of reproductive rights was the reason the 39-year-old occupational therapist decided to vote for Harris. If Harris is elected, Monroy hopes the right to abortion will be enshrined into law nationwide.

“Especially in Texas, we have to deal with women not being able to have their reproductive rights to have a healthy baby when they’re pregnant or also have the right to have an abortion if they need to or want to,” Monroy said.

She said the choice for president is not an easy one for many people her age or younger who are disappointed because they believe the Biden administration has not done more to help the people in Gaza. Still, she was optimistic.

“I’m hoping that there’s something that they can do to give a better life for those who are suffering in Gaza,” Monroy said.

Immigration reform is also an important issue for her, like it is for many voters this election cycle. However, while other voters may express concern over border security, Monroy said reports of migrants flooding border communities like the Rio Grande Valley can be overblown.

“I think a lot of people have the misguided understanding that there’s a bunch of people, in droves, coming into the Valley and messing (up) our area,” she said.

She hopes immigration reform will grant people the right to find a better life here.

“Just like many immigrants before us tried to do,” Monroy said. — Berenice Garcia, Texas Tribune

A mother and daughter vote together for Trump

HURST — Later in the first week of early voting, Crystal Gill squinted in the noontime sun outside the Tarrant County Northeast Courthouse in Hurst, a Fort Worth suburb of nearly 40,000 residents, with an “I Voted” sticker freshly plastered to her T-shirt.

The Fort Worth resident debriefed with her daughter, Evan Gatica, a Dallas Baptist University freshman who just voted for the first time.

Gill, 40, didn’t take the moment of voting alongside her second-born child lightly.

Gill almost had an abortion at 19. She was halfway through college, unmarried and pregnant with Gatica’s brother. If she had given in to the father’s wishes to abort her first pregnancy, she said she likely wouldn’t have had her second child either.

Gill said she is a Christian, and she felt God asked her to push through her first pregnancy and embrace the future challenges of parenthood.

“It’s God’s call,” Gill said.

Her views on abortion, combined with her experience as a single mother and a distaste for unfettered access to welfare programs, are why she voted for former President Donald Trump and other Republicans.

Gill is a third-generation American with Mexican and Indigenous heritage. She was raised in South Texas and settled in Tarrant County in 2021 after moving state-to-state with her ex-husband, who was in the military.

Her daughter, 18, said she would have cast her vote for President Joe Biden in 2020, if she had been old enough. Now, Gatica’s views are different, and she also voted for Republicans this year.

“Growing into my own and being able to actually take a step back and look at things from a completely unbiased perspective, I can definitely say that both sides have gone about certain things in wrong ways,” Gatica said. “But I do lean more Republican because of my Christian background.” — Drew Shaw, Fort Worth Report

Near Houston, a vote for the centrist candidate who is “not trying to get into my ovaries” 

PEARLAND – Yolanda Brown believes democracy is at stake. That’s the reason why she voted on the second day of early voting, Oct. 22.

“This is one of the most important ones in my lifetime,” Brown said after voting at a local library. Pearland is about 20 miles south of Houston in Brazoria County.

Brown said she voted for Kamala Harris and “against Ted Cruz. And vote against Trump.”

Cruz is “just a waste,” she said. “He hasn’t done anything for us.”

Cruz’ reelection bid is one of the most closely watched in the U.S. as the control of the Senate hangs in the balance. The two-term Republican is running against Democrat U.S. Rep. Colin Allred. Allred’s bid is a long shot. A Democrat has not won statewide in Texas since 1994. Democrats have hoped the issue of abortion could animate a portion of the electorate to support Democrats such as Allred.

She blamed Cruz for the state’s near-total abortion ban. She decried the lack of health care and support for pregnant women.

“We have women out here dying, Black women especially,” said Brown, who is Black.

Brown said Allred appears to be more centrist. He “seems to be a guy that is not just far left, far right,” she said.

“He’s not trying to ban abortion, not trying to get into my ovaries,” she said. — Adam Zuvanich and Colleen DeGuzman, Houston Public Media

A ‘brilliant’ businessman, but not presidential

AMARILLO — Justin Crouch believes Trump is a “brilliant businessman.” But Trump didn’t win his vote.

“I’m not going to vote for an insurrectionist that’s trying to take our democracy and has a lot of communist-type rhetoric and beliefs,” Crouch said. “Yes, Trump is a brilliant businessman, but he’s also manipulated a lot of the under-educated and has really taken advantage of that, and I’m not gonna fall for that.”

Crouch is a tall man with gray hair. On the day the Amarillo native voted, he wore purple pants. He said he believes in women’s rights to make their own health care decisions, and the government shouldn’t tell them how to take care of their bodies. He was also unnerved by how the Trump administration handled the pandemic.

Crouch said he was frustrated with his fellow residents and how they’ve reacted to the propositions on the ballot, specifically the abortion issue. He said the local propositions had not been advertised enough, and he felt there was a lack of public information about them.

“Generally, we don’t see propositions that are on the local level. We see propositions that maybe have something to do with how elections are done, but like actual policies in Amarillo? We don’t see many,” Crouch said. — Julie Thompson, Amarillo Tribune

Distrust in local government means no more money to fix the roads

LUBBOCK — It’s Halloween in Lubbock, with children, college students, and some poll workers dressed in costume. It’s also the final days of early voting.

At the voting center at the county’s elections office, Mike Rincon, 55, is not in costume. But he is excited to make his voice heard. Rincon will be one of more than 99,000 voters who voted early this year in Lubbock County.

Rincon said he came out to vote for former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. Rincon went to high school in Lubbock before moving to Dallas. Now he’s back spending time with his mother, and he says the issues are very different in West Texas.

“Dallas is going a little too, a little too liberal. The crime’s getting really bad over there,” he said. “Drugs are getting really bad. The traffic is horrible. Too many people are moving in from other parts of the country.”

Rincon also voted against a local proposal for Lubbock to take on additional debt to fix its roads. He said it was too expensive and he doesn’t trust the city to improve the streets.

“I voted against it because it doesn’t seem like they’re doing any good,” Rincon said. “That’s been another thing that’s been off and on, sporadically, that they’ve been presenting, and it’s never really fixed.”

Seven projects are a part of this year’s bond proposal, totaling $103 million over five years. Over half of the 16 projects from 2022’s $200 million street bond are awaiting construction in the next three years. — Brad Burt, KTTZ

A vote they hope will bring returns on investment

ODESSA — When Alfred and Claudia Herrera voted for Donald Trump for the first time eight years ago, the couple was optimistic.

Alfred is a 47-year-old oil field consultant. Claudia runs a massage business in Odessa. Both said Trump is a businessman — someone the West Texas couple said understood their needs.

When Biden won in 2020, they remained hopeful. The last four years, however, disappointed them. They said they are paying more taxes than ever. The couple often invested in multiple companies and cryptocurrency and stopped about a year after Biden took office because it became costly. Their life, they said, had been upended by the economic policies of the Biden administration.

On the last day of early voting in Ector County, Alfred left work early to vote with Claudia at his side. They were relieved to vote for Trump a third time, believing he could rescue the economy again.

“Everything is costing more and more,” Alfred said. “I can’t do another four years.”

Alfred, a Fort Stockton native, has been married to Claudia, who is from Monahans, for a decade. They live in Odessa now with three sons and one daughter.

They love their jobs. Alfred has been a consultant for 20 years. And Claudia has been a massage therapist for seven years. The couple made enough money to seek out investment ventures.

When Biden took office, they said, the return got smaller. Eventually, they stopped altogether.

“We didn’t see the return on our investments that we were getting before with Trump,” Alfred said. “There were just so many stocks that we had that were paying great dividends. And then within a year after Biden got in, it just became stagnant.”

They said they do not believe that the tax proposal floated by Vice President Kamala Harris, now a candidate for president, will help the economy.

Regardless of who wins, the couple hopes the next president can reach across the aisle and agree on the priorities important to the country.

As the sun no longer beat down on this West Texas city, the couple was relieved to get voting out of the way. Inside the university behind them, where there were four machines for the last-minute stragglers, the line stretched to the side of the building. — Carlos Nogueras Ramos, Texas Tribune

Disclosure: Houston Public Media has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.