Texans headed to the polls with a mixture of duty and frustration

People line up to vote outside of the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center in Houston on March 5, 2024. (Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune)

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Many Texas voters went to the polls Tuesday with a mixture of duty and frustration as they cast their ballots in the primary elections, saying they were driven by larger issues facing the country or a desire to see a less extreme approach to politics.

“Morale feels low,” Kate Mennemeyer, a 39-year-old environmentalist, said after voting at Bering Memorial United Church of Christ in Houston, still holding a card with a list of candidates. “It feels like we’re not being represented. The voices on either side are so extreme.”

The Texas native said she moved back from New York about a year and a half ago, and while her political ideology leans more left, she said she voted in the Republican primary as a way to block candidates she considered too extreme.

Mennemeyer was among bursts of people who headed to the polls Tuesday in the state’s largest city. Several said in interviews that they felt a duty to vote, but lamented what they expected to be low turnout and their choices on the presidential ballot.

Voter turnout was significantly lower during early voting for this year’s primaries compared to 2020, a Texas Tribune analysis found. Even though the state has more registered voters than four years ago, more than 200,000 fewer Texans voted early.

In Houston, voters said local races, such as the Harris County district attorney, and statewide issues like Gov. Greg Abbott’s push for school vouchers motivated them more than the potential presidential race between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. So did a sense of democracy under siege.

Clay Sands outside of the Metropolitan Multi-Service Center on primary election day in Houston. (Credit: Mark Felix for The Texas Tribune)

“It’s unfortunate that neither of those two candidates is 100% charismatic or appealing to most people but I think the policies are day and night,” said Paul Liffman, a professor who has lived in Texas since 2002 and splits his time between Houston and Michoacán, Mexico.

Up the street at another polling location, a line of about 50 people waited on an 82-degree day to cast their ballots while a crowd of campaign workers handed out fliers for their candidates and greeted voters.

Clay Sands, a 60-year-old real estate broker, said he felt a responsibility to participate in the democratic process.

“The least I can do is vote,” Sands said. “I believe that cliché — don’t bitch if you don’t vote.”

David Sheffler and his wife Ella pose at the Tarrant County College Southeast Campus polling location in Arlington on primary election day. (Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)

In North Texas, Arlington resident David Sheffler and his wife, Ella, cast their ballots at Tarrant County College’s Southeast Campus. The 69-year-old said he felt especially compelled this year to uphold his civic duty.

“Just trying to preserve our democracy and not go into a dictatorship,” he said.

A burst of applause broke out when 18-year-old Jalan Henderson confirmed that he was voting in his first election. Henderson said the advice of his father, Luther, was on his mind as he voted.

“My dad always says if you make $500,000 a year, vote Republican — if you make anything under that, vote Democrat,” Henderson said.

First time voter Jalan Henderson, 18, and his father Luther Henderson at the Tarrant County College Southeast Campus polling location in Arlington on election day. (Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune)

In Lufkin, voters dodged miniature ponds that developed around polling locations following a heavy thunderstorm that hit early Tuesday morning. While early voting turnout was low — fewer than 10% of Angelina County voters cast a ballot in the Republican primary and just 1% voted in the Democratic primary — election workers said they saw a steady stream of voters Tuesday.

Dedria Lewis was waiting to vote at Lufkin’s Brandon Park Community Center as others milled around outside in the muggy heat.

Lewis said voting is vital not just because it gives you a voice, but because people died so Americans could have the right to vote.

“A lot of people don’t vote because they feel like it doesn’t even matter, but it matters to me,” she said.

Dedria Lewis at Brandon Park Community Center in Lufkin before voting on March 5, 2024. (Credit: Leslie Nemec for The Texas Tribune)

Regardless of their party affiliation, Lewis believes the winners of any race ought to be candidates who care about people regardless of race, religion, gender or other factors. She said she has faith everything will work out.

“God takes care of me, so I don’t worry about it,” she said. “I go to work, pay my bills, that’s it.”

Some voters lamented that they had to choose a party in the primaries. Craig Morgan, who works for a local air conditioning company, says he's a conservative, but didn’t like that he couldn’t have a say in the Democratic primary because there were good candidates on both sides.

“It removes part of your choice,” he said.

Nathan Pegram was more upset that local Democrats are such a minority that they don’t have much say in local elections, which are mostly decided in the Republican primary.

“There are a lot of people who live here who are registered Democrats that just basically say, ‘Well, we have to take what everybody else gives us,’ and I think it’s limiting,” he said.

Gary Jentz said he didn’t see many good options to vote for, and he wasn’t sure it would really make a difference because he thinks the country is “going to hell in a handbasket.”

He’s looking for someone who’s able to reunite the country. A good leader needs to come from the people, he said, someone who understands what a working-class American family really needs.

“We just have to have people that are honest, decent and who care,” he said.

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