In the first primary since President Trump was elected, Texas voters on Tuesday, and thousands more during early voting, cast their ballots to determine the party nominees for the November midterm election.
Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Houston businessman Andrew White will head into a runoff in May to secure the Democratic nomination for governor. Incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott easily won the Republican primary.
As predicted, U.S. Senate incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic challenger Beto O'Rourke will face off in the fall. Cruz earned 85 percent of the vote in the GOP primary; O'Rourke won almost 62 percent of the Democratic vote.
In Texas Senate District 8, Angela Paxton, the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, won the Republican nomination after opponent Phillip Huffines conceded the expensive Collin County race.
In the GOP primary for Texas Senate District 30, Pat Fallon snatched incumbent Craig Estes' seat, which represents areas north and west of Fort Worth. Likewise in the Republican race in state House District 114, Republican Lisa Luby Ryan beat incumbent Jason Villalba.
In some races, there were so many candidates that several runoffs became likely — one being the seven-way Democratic primary in Dallas challenging longtime U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions.
Other races just barely avoided a runoff: In Dallas County, John Creuzot won the Democratic race for district attorney with just 516 more votes than his opponent.
Find more results from the primaries below.
Local races | statewide races | congressional races | more results
Statewide
Governor
Result: Incumbent Greg Abbott is the projected winner in the GOP primary. Democrats Lupe Valdez and Andrew White will face off in May.
Background: Nine Democrats are challenging incumbent Greg Abbott for the highest office in the state. Front-runners include former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Houston businessman Andrew White. He’s the son of former Texas Gov. Mark White, who died last August. According to the latest Texas Tribune poll, Abbott will most likely win the Republican primary and Valdez was leading among Democratic poll respondents. View all of the gubernatorial candidates.
Lieutenant Governor
Result: Incumbent Dan Patrick and Democrat Mike Collier are the projected winners in their respective primaries.
Background: Dan Patrick is seeking a second term as lieutenant governor. In the GOP primary, he’s being challenged by Scott Milder, a public education advocate from Rockwall. On the Democratic side, Mike Collier, a Houston-area accountant who stepped down as finance chair of the Texas Democratic Party to run, is up against Michael Cooper, a sales manager at a car dealership in Beaumont. According to the Tribune’s poll, Patrick is a shoo-in for the GOP nomination, and Collier had a narrow advantage over Cooper among Democratic respondents.
Agriculture Commissioner
Result: Incumbent Sid Miller is the projected winner in the Republican primary. He will face lone Democratic challenger Kim Olson in the fall.
Background: Incumbent Sid Miller faces a pair of Republicans and one Democrat in his bid for four more years. Trey Blocker is his top Republican primary opponent, according to the Texas Tribune. Blocker, a former Austin lobbyist, has questioned Miller’s ethics and decisions as commissioner. The race between Miller and Blocker could be close. According to the latest Tribune poll, about 60 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they were undecided. But when they were pressed to make a decision, the majority gave their support to Miller. Jim Hogan is the third GOP candidate. Kim Olson is the lone Democrat.
Land Commissioner
Result: Incumbent George P. Bush and Democrat Miguel Suazo are the projected winners in their respective primaries.
Background: In the Republican primary, incumbent George P. Bush has three challengers, including his predecessor Jerry Patterson, who ran the state’s General Land Office from 2003 to 2015. Patterson gave up the job to run unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor. Bush was elected land commissioner in his first attempt at elected office in 2014. According to the Tribune, he’s running with two issues at hand: the upgrading of the Alamo and helping victims of Hurricane Harvey with housing. Republicans Davey Edwards and Rick Range are also running. The Democratic race is a matchup between Miguel Suazo and Tex Morgan. Suazo gathered more Democratic support in the Tribune’s poll.
Congress
U.S. Senate
Result: Incumbent Ted Cruz and Democrat Beto O'Rourke are the projected winners in their respective primaries. They will face off in November.
Background: Sen. Ted Cruz is seeking his second term after spending a chunk of his first running for president. He won the Texas primary, but ultimately lost the Republican nomination to Donald Trump. His strongest Democratic challenger is U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-El Paso, who easily outraised Cruz over the last three months, according to the Texas Tribune. O'Rourke collected over $2.4 million to the Texas Republican’s $1.9 million. Cruz still has more cash on hand, though. The incumbent faces four Republican challengers. O’Rourke’s up against two other Democrats, Edward Kimbrough and Sema Hernandez.
U.S. House 3rd District
Result: Democrats Lorie Burch and Sam Johnson are expected to have a runoff in May. Van Taylor is the projected winner in the Republican primary.
Background: Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Richardson, is retiring after 26 years in Congress. Texas’ 3rd Congressional District covers a big chunk of Collin County, including McKinney, Plano, Frisco and the Collin County portion of Dallas. Coincidentally, another Sam Johnson, a Democrat, is competing to fill the vacancy against Adam P. Bell, Lorie Burch and Medrick Yhap. On the Republican side, Van Taylor, who stepped down from his Texas Senate seat to run for Congress, joins Alex Donkervoet and David Niederkorn.
U.S. House 5th District
Result: A May runoff is expected between Republicans Lance Gooden and Bunni Pounds. Either would face Dan Wood in November.
Background: Rep. Jeb Hensarling is retiring after 14 years in Congress. The Dallas Republican is chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee. Texas’ 5th Congressional District includes part of southeast Dallas County, including Mesquite, and stretches cross Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson and Kaufman counties. Dan Wood is the lone Democrat. The Republican race is much more crowded with eight hopefuls.
U.S. House 6th District
Result: Democrats Ruby Faye Woolridge and Jana Lynne Sanchez face a runoff in May, as do Republicans Ron Wright and J.K. Ellzey for the congressional seat.
Background: Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, announced last year that he was retiring after a nude picture of him went public and an Arlington activist sent the Fort Worth Star-Telegram a sexually suggestive message thread with Barton. He’s been in office for more than three decades, making him the longest-serving Texan in Congress. Eleven Republicans and five Democrats are competing in the primary for the Texas 6th Congressional District.
U.S. House 32nd District
Result: Democrats Colin Allred and Lillian Salerno head to a runoff in May. Incumbent Pete Sessions easily won the Republican primary.
Background: In the crowded race for the Democratic primary in Texas’ 32nd Congressional District — a Dallas-area seat held by Republican Rep. Pete Sessions — three of the seven candidates are Obama administration alumni: Colin Allred, Lillian Salerno and Ed Meier. No matter which Democrat wins, it’ll be an uphill battle. Sessions has been in Congress for two decades. A former head of the National Republican Congressional Committee, Sessions is a strong fundraiser with more than $1 million in the bank.
Local
State Senate District 2
Result: Incumbent Bob Hall is the projected winner over Cindy Burkett. He'll face Democrat Kendall Scudder in the fall.
Background: The GOP primary for state Senate District 2 is one of the hottest races in this election, according to the Texas Tribune. Cindy Burkett, R-Sunnyvale, gave up her seat in the Texas House to challenge incumbent Republican Bob Hall. Hall was elected to the seat in 2014, when he upset longtime incumbent Bob Deuell by 150 votes in a runoff, according to the Dallas Morning News. Whoever wins will face Democratic challenger Kendall Scudder. District 2 covers parts of Dallas and towns to the north and east, including Terrell, Greenville and Bonham.
State Senate District 8
Result: Republican Phillip Huffines conceded the race, making opponent Angela Paxton the Republican nominee. Democrat Mark Phariss narrowly won the primary race over Brian Chaput.
This just in: @AngelaPaxtonTX says @PhillipHuffines just called to concede. Her husband, Tx Atty Gen @KenPaxtonTX, introduces her as the next TX senator for #SD8. #TxDecides @keranews pic.twitter.com/zDPYfApyb8
— Stella M. Chávez (@stellamchavez) March 7, 2018
Background: District 8 is Texas’ only open state Senate seat up for election this year. On the Republican side, Phillip Huffines, the Dallas County Republican Party chairman, and Angela Paxton, the wife of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, are spending millions to win the Collin County seat. It was left empty when state Sen. Van Taylor announced he’d be stepping down to run for Congress. On the Democratic side, Mark Phariss, a Plano lawyer who sued Texas over the right to marry his partner, is competing against Brian Chaput.
State Senate District 10
Result: Beverly Powell is the projected winner of the Democratic primary and will face Republican incumbent Konni Burton in November.
Background: Texas Senate District 10, which covers about half of Tarrant County, is the closest to a swing district among the 31 Senate districts in the state, according to the Texas Tribune. Two Democrats, Allison Campolo and Beverly Powell, are competing to unseat Colleyville Republican Konni Burton. Burton won her seat in 2014 after Democrat Wendy Davis ran for governor instead of running for re-election. The Tribune says the Clinton/Sanders divide still exists between the two Democratic contenders in this race.
State Senate District 30
Result: Pat Fallon is the projected winner, unseating incumbent Craig Estes in the Republican race. Democrat Kevin Lopez ran uncontested.
Background: Another hot race in the Tribune’s book, the GOP primary for this Texas Senate seat is pitting Republicans Craig Carter and Pat Fallon against incumbent Craig Estes of Wichita Falls. District 30 covers areas north and west of Fort Worth. According to the Times Record News, things have been especially heated between Estes and Fallon. “Both candidates have had much to say about the other, none of it good.” In the Democratic primary, Kevin Lopez is running uncontested.
State House District 99
Result: Incumbent Charlie Geren is the projected winner in the Republican primary. He'll face Democrat Michael Stackhouse in the fall.
Background: Incumbent Charlie Geren and businessman Bo French are up against each other (again) in the GOP primary for the District 99 seat, which covers part of Fort Worth and areas to the west. There was some recent controversy involving the two Republicans. Conservative group Empower Texans sent out an attack ad targeting Geren that resembled an official government notice. French receives a lot of funding from Empower Texans’ political action committee, according to the Texas Tribune. Michael Stackhouse is the sole Democratic candidate for the seat.
State House District 109
Result: Deshaundra Lockhart Jones and Carl Sherman will face off in May.
Background: State Rep. Helen Giddings, D-DeSoto, is retiring from the Texas House after 13 terms. First elected in 1992, Giddings is the vice chair of the powerful House State Affairs Committee. She's also the chair of the Texas Legislative Black Caucus. Four Democrats — Carl Sherman, Christopher Graham, Deshaundra Lockhart Jones and Victoria Walton — are competing for Giddings' House District 109, which wraps around Dallas to the south. No Republicans are running.
State House District 114
Result: Republican Lisa Luby Ryan is the projected winner, beating Republican incumbent Villalba. She'll face John Turner in the fall.
Background: The GOP race between incumbent Jason Villalba and Lisa Luby Ryan, who operates an interior design firm and the antique home furnishings store Vintage Living in Dallas, is heating up. John Turner is the sole Democrat vying for District 114, which wraps around Dallas to the north. Read more about the Republican matchup from the Dallas Morning News.
Dallas County District Attorney
Result: With 50.23 percent of the vote, John Creuzot defeated Elizabeth Frizell. He'll face Faith Johnson in the fall.
Background: Former state district judges John Creuzot and Elizabeth Frizell are competing in the Democratic primary to ultimately try to unseat Republican Faith Johnson. Johnson was appointed as Dallas County’s top lawyer by Gov. Greg Abbott in December 2016 after Susan Hawk resigned to focus on her mental health. The race has drawn the attention of a handful of organizations, including the ACLU, that want to change the way criminal justice operates in Texas.
More resources and results
Here are election returns from the Texas Tribune.