The Texas Secretary of State’s office said 168,000 voters had cast ballots in the Democratic primary in person or by mail in the state’s ten largest counties through the end of Sunday. By contrast, 138,000 voters had cast ballots in the Republican primary.

It is the first time in a decade that Texas Democrats have turned in more ballots than Republicans at this point in the early voting window. And it’s the first time in 12 years that Democrats outpaced Republicans in a midterm election year.

This year’s data show a marked increase in the number of Democratic voters who have cast early ballots than in previous midterm years. Four years ago, just 90,000 Democratic voters showed up during the first six days of early voting. In 2010, only 71,000 Democrats had voted early.