The surge in Democratic primary voters for the March 6 elections has sparked renewed talk of a great blue wave that will wash through Texas, and the rest of the nation in November.

Such predictions have merit.

While it's still a bridge too far to predict that Democrats will sweep statewide offices or knock off Gov. Greg Abbott, Republicans are at risk for significant losses in the midterm elections. And even the race at the top of the ticket, U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke's challenge of Sen. Ted Cruz, could be much closer than originally expected.

Abbott sounded the alarm with a fundraising email this week, saying the early vote totals from the first week should "shock every conservative to their core."

The email comes from a heavily favored incumbent with $43 million in his campaign fund.

Abbott is right to be concerned.

In the 15 highest voting counties, Democratic turnout was 69 percent higher than the first six days of early voting in the last midterm primaries in 2014, while Republicans saw a 20 percent increase. Of the totals in Dallas County, 20 percent of the primary voters had not participated in a Democratic Party primary, while 30 percent had voted in only one Democratic Party primary and 22 percent had voted in two primaries. But in most cases they were voters who had participated in general elections, which indicates that they are either independent or Republican voters.

Democrats need those voters, along with a strong base turnout, to beat the GOP in November.

Said Abbott: "We had always hoped the liberal wave would never hit Texas, but these early voting returns aren't encouraging so far."

In February, Cruz told a group of GOP voters that Republicans could get "obliterated at the polls and that Democrats would "crawl over broken glass in November to vote."

Democrats say the motivating force is President Donald Trump.

"These aren't brand-new voters. These are new primary voters," said Matt Angle, director of Democratic research group Lone Star Project and who has been studying the vote totals. "There is no question everything is coming together for Democrats. These are people who are very unhappy that Donald Trump is president."

In 2016 Trump stunned the nation by defeating heavily favored Hillary Clinton for president. His victory led to a deep depression among Democrats, quickly followed by outrage and vows to avenge Clinton and the party in the midterm elections. In resisting Trump, Democrats are also exorcising the ghosts in the presidential election.

In Texas, that could manifest itself in a series of down-ballot victories, and many powerful GOP incumbents are at risk.

The wave could wash away the career of longtime incumbent Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, who will face one of seven Democratic contenders in the race for the 32nd Congressional District. In Dallas County, much of the Democratic voter surge is being driven by that contest, though the largest concentration of voters has been in the Dallas-anchored district represented by Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson.

Two other Republican incumbents, Will Hurd of San Antonio and John Culberson of Houston, could get swept away.

In North Texas, where Democrats are hoping to make gains in the Texas House, up to eight Republicans seats are up for grabs, including those held by incumbents Rodney Anderson of Grand Prairie, Matt Rinaldi of Irving, Jason Villalba of Dallas, Linda Koop of Dallas, and Cindy Burkett of Sunnyvale, who's running for Senate against incumbent Bob Hall of Edgewood.

And Democrats hope to unseat Konni Burton in Tarrant County's Senate District 10, the seat once held by Wendy Davis, the 2014 Democratic Party nominee for governor. There also will be a strong challenge from Democrats to the re-election of Sen. Don Huffines, the GOP incumbent from Dallas.

The last time a Democratic Party wave hit North Texas was 2008, when Democrats came within one seat of retaking the Texas House.

Because most of the Republican incumbents are hard-right conservatives, they contrast perfectly with Democrats being pushed by more progressive general election voters.

The only thing left for Republicans at risk is to run solid campaigns and turn out their conservative base. Even then, if the predicted wave comes, it may not matter for many GOP incumbents.

They would be sitting ducks.