The record surge of early voting in Texas' rapidly growing cities and inner suburbs, which on Friday helped power the state past its total votes cast during the entire 2016 election, likely marks the end of unchallenged Republican dominance in America's second largest state -- a seismic shift in the nation's electoral landscape.
Even if President Donald Trump retains enough rural strength to hold Texas in Tuesday's election, which many still consider the most likely outcome, the swelling voter turnout in and around the increasingly Democratic-leaning cities of Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and Fort Worth points toward a return to political competition in the state after more than two decades of almost uninterrupted Republican ascendancy.
"If the explosive growth in the urban centers and suburbs continues [for Democrats] that will be the whole ballgame," says Richard Murray, a longtime political scientist at the University of Houston who has forecast the 1 million vote metro advantage for Biden.
Losing Texas -- either next week or in 2024 -- would register in Republican circles as a uniquely powerful earthquake that would rattle their confidence in the party's direction and message, many GOP insiders agree.