Harris County residents weren’t particularly enthusiastic about participating in the 2024 presidential election — but early signs suggest there’s renewed passion for the political process in this year’s midterms.
Newly published Kinder Institute surveys show Harris County residents' disengagement and disillusionment with the political process were the main reasons why eligible voters didn't cast a ballot in the 2024 general election, which produced the lowest local turnout rate for a presidential election cycle in two decades.
The surveys, taken by about 1,150 U.S.-born Harris County residents who didn’t vote, reveal voters’ attitudes about politics well outpaced logistical and administrative barriers as the top reasons for sitting out the 2024 election. About 60% of respondents said they didn’t vote because they weren’t interested in politics, didn’t like the candidates, didn’t know enough about their options or the issues, or believed their vote didn’t matter.
“There are all kinds of challenges that still need to be addressed with voter access and getting people registered to vote, but overwhelmingly our research showed it was these attitudinal barriers that we have to overcome,” said Dylan Simburger, a research analyst for the Kinder Institute’s Houston Population Research Center. “When 6 in 10 people who didn’t vote are signaling they’re disengaged from the political process, that really jumped out.”
The findings build on Kinder Institute survey results published in September that showed the degree to which an individual identifies with being a voter ranked as the strongest of 25 predictors of whether Harris County residents cast a ballot in the 2024 election.
While interest in the 2024 election was low, early voting totals for the 2026 midterm cycle suggest local residents might be more invigorated this year.
Harris County reported a record-breaking number of early votes cast in person or via mail, totaling 1.08 million, ahead of Election Day on Tuesday. About 39% of registered Harris County voters cast early ballots at a polling place or via mail, up from 30% in 2022 and 38% in 2018.
The 2026 midterms in Texas are headlined by a hotly contested U.S. Senate race and a gubernatorial election. Democrats are hoping to flip both seats, which are currently held by Republicans, amid polls showing unusually close races for the traditionally red state.
Jessica Rivera Pace, communications and civic education manager for the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Houston, said her team has received an abnormally large number of requests this election cycle for support. The nonprofit printed 90,000 voter guides to distribute across Harris County, double the number published for the March primary elections, and has taken an above-average number of calls from voters seeking help with casting their ballot.
“We’ve definitely seen greater demand for resources, not just from our regular partners, but from community leaders who we’ve never worked with before,” Rivera Pace said.
What kept people home
Historically, nonvoters offer an array of reasons for sitting out elections: apathy, too busy, hard to register, sickness, even bad weather.
To understand the factors limiting local turnout, Kinder Institute researchers asked about 5,000 members of the Greater Houston Community Panel — a scientifically selected group of adults regularly surveyed about life in the region — who live in Harris County about the 2024 general election.
“It was data we hadn’t looked at before, and our center has been trying to better understand people’s feelings about political processes,” Simburger said. “These are tenuous times for a lot of people, and political systems have a lot to do with that.”
Roughly one-quarter of respondents said they didn’t vote in the election, a lower share than the 40% of eligible voters who didn’t cast a ballot. Younger residents, lower-income respondents, those with less than a bachelor’s degree, and Asian and Hispanic residents were more likely to not vote in the election.
When given 13 options for why they didn’t vote, the largest share (21%) selected “not interested or don’t care about politics.” About 16% said they didn’t like the candidates, while 12% said they didn’t feel they knew enough about the candidates or issues and another 12% said they weren’t registered to vote.
About one-quarter of respondents cited logistical barriers, led by being too busy (10%) and illness-related absences (5%). Issues with identification and long lines at the polls registered just 3% combined.
The results suggested Harris County residents were slightly more disenchanted with voting than the rest of the nation.
A similar Census Bureau survey of about 18,200 people nationwide who sat out the 2024 general election showed about 34% didn’t vote because they weren’t interested or didn’t like the candidates or campaign issues. A higher share (18%) said they were too busy, while 12% cited an illness or disability.
An energized electorate?
While surveys haven’t been done to evaluate the reasons for higher early turnout this election cycle, voter enthusiasm appears to be the most likely factor.
Notably, Harris County hasn’t made significant changes to the early voting process that would help residents overcome logistical or administrative barriers. The county offers the same number of early voting days as in years past, and it’s hosting 12 fewer polling locations compared to the 87 provided in 2024.
Rivera Pace said she believes voter enthusiasm has been high all year, pointing to turnout in the March primaries that well exceeded 2022 and 2024.
“That was a really big signal to us that there is some momentum building behind what was to come in the midterms,” Rivera Pace said.
Melissa Allala, the GOTV, or Get Out the Vote, director for the youth-led nonprofit AliefVotes, said her organization has had the most success overcoming disengagement with politics through in-person, one-on-one conversations that connect voting to residents’ day-to-day challenges. Allala said those conversations this election cycle have revealed a higher appetite for participating.
“I do think a lot of folks are ready for change,” Allala said. “As to what that change is, that depends on how people end up voting. There’s a lot riding on this election for a lot of people.”
Simburger said Kinder Institute researchers are conducting pre- and post-election surveys with Greater Houston Community Panel participants to understand what drove voter interest in 2026.
“We have to be cautious, but I do think the early voting turnout is encouraging and pointing to people having a renewed interest in the political process,” Simburger said.
