To talk about the primary. Good morning to you. Patrick good morning. Host breaks down expectations for turnout and where the momentum is as far as the candidates are concerned. Is ack right now there decent amount of uncertainty given the early Voting Period in texas which is february 18 through this past friday. It came before joe bidens big victory in south carolina. I think a lot of people in texas will watch for what the early , did aresults look like lot of Texas Democrats wait to vote on election day to see who would be still viable at that point . This applies to people like Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg who dropped out in the past 24 or 48 hours. There is a significant chunk of the total vote that is the early vote in texas, it is not a perfect comparison but in 2016 when it was Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton i believe 42 of the total vote was the early vote. It will be interesting to see what the early vote looks like this time of around and how much this late biden search is reflected on election day boat and it is enough if it is enough to make a difference. Host what is the democratic demographic in texas and how many of those will go out and vote today . Over one million texans have already voted in the democratic primary in texas. Upt number is significantly from similar elections in past cycles. Its basely important to keep in not just thehave president ial primary but also a very crowded and competitive u. S. Senate primary. There are two big races at the top of the ticket that are driving turnouts for democrats. It will be interesting to see what the wrong number is on election day and how many people waited until election day to vote to figure out who would be viable. Host what portions of the state are the ones you are watching closest and what does that do as far as support for a candidate . Patrick all the big metro areas that have a lot of micronic voters, you think of places like dallasfort worth metroplex, places like houston, and the greater houston area which is massive and sprawling. Wheree looking at places we have not seen necessarily every candidate reach out but those who have have done it in a strategic and surgical way, places like el paso and places like the rio grande valley. Even places like a larger city like san antonio. A lot of the natural attention in texas at the end when candidates have limited time tends to float towards houston, dallas, maybe austin, and san antonio to a lesser extent. I am going to see which candidates have been making inroads in those other markets. What dynamic does beto orourke cost support for joe biden bring . The mosthe is still popular, wellknown democrat statewide in texas. His opinion on this race and him weighing in on this race is incredibly important. Surprisingost endorsement that biden rolled out yesterday. Word of this only leaked out a couple of hours beforehand. I think it caught a lot of people by surprise and in terms of the effect that it has on the outcome of the race in texas i think the question of what the early Voting Period looks like and how many people waited until tuesday to cast their ballot, i have no doubt that for a healthy amount of Texas Democrats, for those who are maybe waiting until tuesday to cast a ballot, if they were on the fence with joe biden and saw beto orourke come out in support of him, that may make the difference and push them into the biden camp. Determine wholl the democratic challenger will be, at least it is part of the process. What does that look like . Thatck candidates in primary, maybe half of them are serious credible candidates who are raising relatively significant amounts of money for the primary. The big question is who is going to make the number two spot in the likely runoff. You look at the recent polling and the spending from the race and who has benefited, hagar is a safe bet for the number one spot. She is a former air force helicopter pilot who ran a surprisingly competitive congressional race in the austin suburb. Most people expect her to finish first it is a question of who gets the second runoff spot. That is up for grabs among at least three or four candidates. You have a long time dallas senator who has a formidable base and is very well known in Dallas County which is going to provide a lot of democratic votes in any statewide primary. You have someone like ramirez who is a veteran progressive and ,abor organizer in the state known as the viable progressive in the race. Candidatesme other who you could possibly see getting to that number two spot like amanda edwards, a former houston city councilmember and the former houston congressman and nominee for governor. There is a lot of uncertainty about who is going to make that number two spot. The recent polls have shown a lot of texans are still undecided in this race and do not know much about the candidates. That has been a lowkey race in that regard. Host patrick who reports for the Texas Tribune with us. Ta the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark rate by a half percent today. Part of the response to the coronavirus. Fed chair Jerome Powell spoke to eporters about the rate cut. Chairman powell good morning, everyone. Earlier