Voter holds up their sticker at the student center on Tuesday, Feb 3, 2026, in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez/The Cougar
On Primary Election Day, March 3, voting was held in the Student Center South Ballroom from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Members of the UH community cast their ballots to determine the Republican and Democratic candidates who will represent them in November’s general elections.
“A lot of college students are busy with school, so they get the least amount of people coming out to vote,” said biology freshman Tristen Chiang. “I feel like it’s really important that once we turn 18 and we get the privilege to vote, we should express what we want in our leaders and how we want our future in America to be.”
The election included races for the U.S. Senate, governor and various congressional districts and local offices.
Students were mainly focused on the candidates for the Senate and the governor, with some Democratic students expressing support for Senate candidate James Talarico and gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa.
“I’m leaning towards Talarico because I believe it’s who liberal and conservative Texans would be most open to voting for in the general election,” said management information systems junior Stephanie Valdez.
Talarico and Hinojosa won their respective Democratic primaries. The Republican Senate primary between incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as several Democratic district races, ended in a runoff.
Student voters expressed concerns about various domestic policy issues. Valdez, in particular, said that she is voting to improve Texas’ gun control laws.
“I feel like we should get more students out there to vote due to the gun laws that we have in this state,” Valdez said. “We have very weak gun laws that are killing a lot of students in our schools.”
Chiang said that he is concerned about the future of affordable healthcare.
“One of my core beliefs is that everyone should have equal opportunity to afford healthcare,” Chiang said.
UH Democrats organized a meet and greet with Democratic congressional candidate Christian Menefee, who visited the campus to encourage students to vote in the primaries.
“Look, if you don’t go vote, I can guarantee you that older generations are going to vote, and they will end up being disproportionately influential in who gets elected,” Menefee said. “The America that we shake today is going to be the America that y’all are gonna continue to grow up in, the one you’re gonna raise your kids in. Nobody should be more invested in the future of this country than young people.”
Some students believe their voices often go unheard in Texas due to low voter turnout, but they stress the importance of participating in elections because the resulting laws and policies mostly impact young adults.
“When new laws go into effect, they’re obviously going to be in effect for a long time,” said biology freshman Pouria Alikhani. “So maybe past generations didn’t experience living under these new laws, but we have to live under those laws for potentially the rest of our lives.”
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