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Primary Election Results
Texas election results 2022 for governor, Congress and more primaries | The Texas Tribune
The 2022 primary election held few surprises yesterday. Governor Abbott and Beto O’Rourke each won their respective primary elections with respectable margins. Governor Abbott was forced to spend considerable funds to achieve his victory but has an immense war chest waiting in the wings for the upcoming general election in November and is an accomplished fundraiser. Former Congressman O’Rourke is also a talented fundraiser and should be able to raise sufficient funds to run a respectable race. Both candidates have already begun sparing, should be interesting to watch.
The only other statewide race that was interesting to watch was the race for attorney general. With General Paxton’s legal problems, the outcome for this race was always in question. Current Land Commissioner George P Bush outpaced the other candidates and will face Paxton in the runoff on May 24th.
Other statewide runoffs include:
- Lt. Governor- Democratic
- Land Commissioner- Democratic and Republican
- Comptroller- Democratic
- Railroad Commissioner- Republican
There were very few surprises in the Texas Senate races. Phil King will take on Incumbent Beverly Powell in the redrawn SD 10. Mays Middleton won the SD 11 seat formerly held by the retiring Larry Taylor, there is no Democratic opponent. Republican Tan Parker will take on Francine Ly in Senator Jane Nelson’s old seat. Former Senator Pete Flores will take on Paul Reyes in the SD 24 open seat and in the South Texas seat formerly held by Eddie Lucio II, Morgan LaMantia will face Sara Stapleton-Barrera in the Democratic primary runoff.
In the House there were a number of Incumbent Republicans with contested primaries. Kyle Kacal in a redrawn district 12 will face former House member Ben Bius in the runoff. Incumbent Glenn Stephenson will take on Stan Kitzman in HD 85.
Ellen Troxclair and Justin Berry will face off in the newly drawn and open HD 19. While Ms. Troxclair was in front going into the runoff, the margin was much closer than people suspected. The recent announcement of the indictment of Austin Police officer Justin Berry actually appeared to help him in this race. Only time will tell whether that trend will continue into the runoff.
Attempts by far-right groups to drastically alter the House makeup appear to be stymied, at least at this time. It is reasonable to expect that Speaker Phelan will again be elected as Speaker. But, with the large number of retirements in the House, look for new leadership on several key committees. On the Senate side, Lt. Governor Patrick will have general election opposition, it remains to be seen who that opposition will be and whether the individual can raise sufficient funds to be competitive.
There are a number of additional runoff races around the state, for a complete listing follow the Texas Tribune link above.
Getting voters out again (Texas is notorious for low turnouts anyway) is difficult in the best of circumstances. With the ongoing distractions both in Texas and abroad and the lack of several big-ticket statewide races on the runoff ballot (other than the AG race), turnout will be marginal and sporadic.
While House and Senate interim charges have not yet been released those listings should appear soon on both sides, promising a busy summer and fall. There is always the possibility of some of these hearings to occur in areas of the state outside of Austin. Stay tuned. How the current situation in Europe will impact Texas is not yet known. While the amount of Russian oil imported into the US is small compared to Europe, it may influence an increase in oil and gas production here in Texas. That means more jobs and yet another potential increase in state tax revenue. Remember that Texas is already awash in surplus tax revenue from the various COVID relief efforts, both personal and governmental. How this money is spent will be the next big series of questions to be considered.
JKF