Answer: It’s Beto.
This evening caps yet another stellar day of early voting across the State of Texas, so we’re highlighting some impressive figures and corresponding images coming out Collin County, TX. We’re not surprised. Back in mid-September, we observed a remarkable indicator of appeal for Beto at a 9/15 campaign rally hosted at Legacy Hall in Plano. The crowd numbering around 2,000 shocked our assumption about the kind of Democratic turnout possible for North Texas.
According to a Tuesday (10/23) post on the Community Impact Newspaper‘s website, current total voter turnout in Collin County (McKinney, Plano) represented a more than 400% increase when compared to the 2nd day of the Early Voting in 2014. Keep in mind Collin County in 2016 went for Trump with final results showing 55.6% to Clinton’s 38.9% – totally eclipsing the TX-03 Congressional District’s Cook PVI score of R+13 in favor of the GOP. That last figure generally means Republican candidates enjoy a hefty and comfortable double-digit lead against generic Democratic candidates.
We’re borrowing the graphic below from its post to show what the jolt in voter participation looks like this year, compared to pre-Trump era turnout.
Whether or not this is the manifestation of a true Blue Wave, or merely a byproduct of more Democrats opting to vote early rather than on Election Tuesday, we’ll simply have to wait patiently to see the corresponding election returns data. But we have a feeling it’s still Beto pushing voters to the polls.
About Our Shots:
The Plano event came right after a Denton rally for O’Rourke, meaning we arrived to lines of attendees already stretching around two corners of the block and an at-capacity crowd at Legacy Hall.
Knowing we wouldn’t get into the venue, we drove to the top of an adjacent parking garage and joined at least 200 others on the top of 5 floors, looking out into the open atrium of the venue.
Using a remote shutter switch to snap images from atop a hoisted monopod raised 10-12 feet to clear a safety fence/grate and make the shot. In this regard, it paid to be a little late. We’re fairly certain we were the only outlet to make images from this perspective.
Related Content:
‘Collin County early voter turnout more than four times higher in 2018 than 2014 election‘