A few quick takes on tonight’s election results:
- Lupe Valdez defeated Andrew White, 53-47, to claim the Democratic nomination.
- The first Democratic gubernatorial runoff since 1990 failed to draw much buzz. Turnout was the lowest ever for a Democratic gubernatorial runoff, breaking a 98-year-old record set in 1920, when 449K voters cast ballots in the first-ever runoff for governor. Around 430K people voted in the 2018 runoff.
- In state history, there have been 44 election years featuring at least one statewide Democratic race. Tonight’s turnout ranks 37th out of those 44 election years.
- Scott Cosper (R-Killeen) and Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville) lost their runoff races. Legislative incumbents have lost 22 of the last 27 runoffs into which they’ve been forced.
- House leadership went 5-for-6 against their movement conservative antagonists. Steve Allison (HD121), Keith Bell (HD4), Cody Harris (HD8), Ben Leman (HD13) and Reggie Smith (HD62) prevailed over candidates backed by Empower Texans and Texas Right to Life PACs, which spent $956K combined on their endorsed candidates in these races. Their only legislative win was Deanna Metzger (HD107), who still faces Rep. Victoria Neave (D-Dallas) in the general election.
- Club for Growth Action, which spent at least $2.4M on Texas races, won three out of four races in which it was involved: Michael Cloud (CD27), Chip Roy (CD21) and Ron Wright (CD6). The group unsuccessfully backed Bunni Pounds in CD5.
- Women candidates were not nearly as successful tonight as during the March primary. On the Democratic side, women won five out of 11 races against a male candidate. On the Republican side, women won just one out four races against a male candidate.
The general election ballot is now mostly set. Still to be determined are the quests by minor parties to gain access to the ballot (Libertarians are already on the ballot.), independents’ petition drives and write-in candidacies.
©2018 Texas Election Source LLC
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