A rare mix of competitive races up and down the ballot has voters turning up to the polls in droves ahead of Tuesday’s primary election, which will set match-ups in the high-stakes midterms in November.

Voters will decide if U.S. Sen. John Cornyn gets to keep the seat he’s held for more than two decades and which candidates will likely take a slew of redrawn congressional seats meant to give Republicans an edge. The races could decide control of Congress.

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Plus, there are multiple statewide office openings for the first time in more than a decade. And voters will decide who will challenge Gov. Greg Abbott as he seeks a record fourth term in office.

After more than two decades in the U.S. Senate, John Cornyn’s political career hangs in the balance.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has led most of the public polling leading into the election, as he campaigns on a Make America Great Again platform that seeks to paint the more establishment Cornyn as out of touch. Further complicating Cornyn’s path to reelection is U.S. Rep. Wesley Hunt of Houston, whose campaign has focused attention on Cornyn’s 74-years of age.

The primary is expected to be one of the tightest statewide races in recent history, with most political observers predicting it will go to a runoff.

On the Democratic side, two of the party’s fastest-rising stars are facing off in a race that has largely been a contrast of styles. 

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a 44-year-old former public defender, has cast herself as a partisan fighter who is unafraid to go toe-to-toe with President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. 

State Rep. James Talarico, a 36-year-old former middle school teacher in San Antonio, skyrocketed to national fame last year by leaning into his Christian faith and warning that Republicans are trying to use religion as a wedge by pushing such legislation as requiring public schools to post placards of the Ten Commandments.

The race for attorney general has become one of the most closely watched elections this cycle after Ken Paxton opted to leave the job to run for U.S. Senate, opening up the seat for the first time in more than a decade.

A crowded field of candidates is vying for the job and raising eye-popping totals. It’s become the second-most expensive race for political ad spending in Texas after the contest for U.S. Senate.

On the Republican side, state Sens. Joan Huffman and Mayes Middleton, former DOJ official and former Paxton aide Aaron Reitz, and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy are competing.

Public polling has shown Roy ahead, but more recent surveys indicate Middleton is gaining ground.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, for whom both Roy and Reitz worked as chief of staff, is backing Roy, while Reitz nabbed his own major endorsement from Paxton.

The Democrats gunning for a chance to be the state’s top lawyer include former federal prosecutor and FBI agent Tony Box; lawyer, mediator and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski; and lawyer and state Sen. Nathan Johnson. 

Jaworski and Johnson have emerged as early leaders, but many voters were still undecided, public polling showed.

The fight to run Texas’ top financial agency features an expensive GOP brawl. Gov. Greg Abbott is backing his ally Kelly Hancock, who is currently serving as acting comptroller, against former state Sen. Don Huffines, an antagonist of the governor’s who has lined up support from grassroots activists. Railroad Commissioner Christi Craddick is running, as well, with support from the oil and gas industries.

Democratic state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt of Austin appears to be the favorite for her party’s nomination and faces former Houston ISD trustee Savant Moore and Houston resident Michael Lange. 

The winner will have an outsized role in Abbott’s property tax-slashing agenda should he win a fourth term in office. They will also oversee the state’s new $1 billion private school voucher program.

Three-term incumbent Sid Miller is battling beekeeper and entrepreneur Nate Sheets, who has the endorsement of Gov. Greg Abbott and several Republican lawmakers. 

Miller, a onetime rodeo champion, has won the endorsement of President Donald Trump, who made his choice known in a social media post after his visit to Corpus Christi on Friday.

U.S. Rep. John Carter of Georgetown is facing a crowded field of Republican primary challengers, including a one-time TV pitchman as he pushes for a 13th term in Congress. 

Carter has President Donald Trump’s “complete and total” endorsement. 

His GOP challengers are: businessman Abhiram Garapati, who has challenged Carter three times before; Army veteran William Abel, who was among Carter’s 2024 opponents; Elvis Lossa, an Army veteran who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq; Steven Dowell, a former member of the Army’s military police; Vince “Shamwow” Shlomi, who hosted offbeat infomercials for cleaning products; and Valentina Gomez, a former collegiate swimmer who two years ago made an unsuccessful bid for the GOP nomination for Missouri secretary of state.