My friend and law school classmate Jack Roady is running as the Republican nominee for the Galveston County Court against an incumbent Democrat, Roy Quintanilla. The county has historically been Democrat, but has been trending GOP over the last few years. Jack is a Harris County (Houston) Assistant District Attorney and works at the appellate level.
In order to maximize his chances of victory, he took the last two weeks off and has worked on meeting people near the early voting locations. As a consequence, he has talked to a LOT of folks and has had the chance to gauge their reaction to him as a Republican office seeker.
Jack is no Pollyanna. If anything he tends to assume things are worse than they are so he can be prepared. That’s why I think it is significant that he has been thrilled by what he’s hearing and seeing on the ground. It is his impression that Republicans are turning out en masse. He gets the same sense talking to other candidates.