Evidence of an expansive enthusiasm gap threatening to sink Democrats in November has emerged in Texas, where more voters participated in the 2022 Republican nominating contests than any midterm election primary in state history.

The roughly 2 million voters who pulled the lever in Republican primaries Tuesday amounted to the second-largest-ever turnout for the GOP on primary day in Texas, eclipsed only by the 2.8 million votes recorded in the state’s 2016 presidential nominating contest. The 2 million Texans who voted in Republican primaries this week outnumbered participation in corresponding Democratic contests by nearly 100% and included many with a minimal history of voting in primaries.