The author points to one of the key reasons why elections turnout as they do. It's not public opinion or the quality of the candidates, its who turns out to vote.
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Texas has two electorates. One votes in presidential election years, and the other votes in gubernatorial election years. They are not the same.
The turnouts are different, and so are the results. Turnouts drop when governors are the most-talked-about races on the ballot. And the state’s Republican voters are more dominant in those years.
In the last two presidential elections, the average Republican on the statewide ballot — the races for president and statewide offices — got 54.4 percent. In the last two gubernatorial election years — 2010 and 2014 — the average Republican running statewide got 59.9 percent. The averages for Democrats in those elections are the flip: They do better in presidential years, getting 42.6 percent, and worse in gubernatorial years: 36.7 percent.
