Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says Republicans will catch and pass Democrats in early voting next week, citing roughly 600,000 high-propensity voters still sitting out.

Patrick told interviewers that early Republican turnout will decide the race and reverse the current Democratic edge. He framed the midterms as a clear choice on border security, crime, taxes, and Texas values rather than a minor shift in party control.

Democrats hold the early lead right now. Patrick said the numbers will flip once reliable Republican voters leave the bench and cast ballots.

He put the gap in concrete terms during the conversation with CBS News Texas.

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

Patrick’s message was direct: stop waiting and vote now. He expects the catch-up to land early next week or midweek, followed by a solid Republican advantage by the close of early voting. That same push for decisive action echoes the public scrutiny seen when a Lindsay Clancy murder trial ends in mistrial after repeated deadlock.

He spelled out the timeline and the ask in plain language.

"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."

A recent Associated Press analysis backs the broader surge in ballots. Early voting in Texas is up 74 percent compared with the same point in 2022. Kansas has more than doubled. Maine, North Carolina, and Ohio each show jumps of more than 30 percent in early in-person and mail ballots.

Patrick also posted a video on Saturday aimed at rural Republicans. He urged them to vote early and keep Texas red. State Rep. Vikki Goodwin, a Democrat, is running against him.

The lieutenant governor cast the stakes as far larger than one office. He told undecided voters and even some Democrats that today’s Democratic Party no longer matches the version from ten or twenty years ago. Jurors under pressure in high-profile cases, including one Lindsay Clancy juror who admits she changed her vote, show how quickly public trust frays when process breaks down.

Patrick listed the principles he says still define the Republican side in Texas.

"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."

Secure borders, support for police, and keeping violent offenders locked up remain the dividing lines he wants voters to weigh. Those priorities matter when courts and juries wrestle with the hardest cases, much as coverage of the Lindsay Clancy mistrial and rejected defense appeal has underscored.

House Speaker Mike Johnson struck a similar note of confidence while campaigning in the state. Breitbart News carried his remarks on October 13. Johnson said he was holding three events in Texas that day before heading to roughly eight states in the week.

He dismissed the public polls and described the energy he is seeing 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. I’m telling you, I’m on the ground in the swing districts. I am seeing huge energy in crowds. It feels like 2024 to me. That’s not registering in the polls, and we’re fired up."

Johnson’s ground-level read matches Patrick’s turnout forecast. Both men argue that registered enthusiasm is outrunning the surveys. Family and accountability questions continue to draw attention in other stories as well, including reports that Patrick Clancy's new wife is expecting their first child.

Early voting volume is already running well ahead of the last midterm cycle in several battleground states. Texas sits at the front of that list with its 74 percent jump. Patrick is betting that the remaining high-propensity Republican voters will close the current gap and then build a lead before Election Day.

His pitch stays fixed on policy differences: low taxes, job creation, border enforcement, backing police, and ending catch-and-release bail practices in the big cities. Those are the contrasts he wants undecided Texans to carry into the booth.

Republicans who show up early can still set the final margin. The next several days will test whether Patrick’s 600,000 holdouts answer the call.

When leaders keep the focus on secure borders, safe streets, and voters who actually cast ballots, the results tend to follow.