Update at 11:25 p.m.
With few precincts left, Republican Konni Burton has the state Senate District 10 race in hand. Democrat Libby Willis was trailing by nearly 13,000 votes.
This will give the district back to the Republicans for the first time since Wendy Davis won it in 2008 from Kim Brimer.
The 53 percent to 45 percent spread was much larger than the last two elections when this appeared more like a swing district. Davis won both by less than 3 percentage points.
Still this was by far the closest state Senate race in Texas. The next closest race was Houston Democrat John Whitmire’s re-election race. He was leading his challenger by roughly 20 percentage points.
With all but a few dozen precinct reporting, Burton held a 52 percent to 45 percent lead. That was close the margin she held with only early voting ballots counted.
Update at 7:30 p.m. Burton has taken a solid lead in early voting, 52 percent to 46 percent. The Libertarian and Green Party candidates make up the rest. To put this in perspective, Davis and her GOP challenger Mark Shelton were almost dead even after early voting in 2012. Davis pulled ahead by winning nearly 55 percent of the Election Day ballots.
Original post A large majority of Texas political races tonight were decided in the March primary thanks to the drawing of safe Republican and Democratic districts. The rare exception is expected to be state Senate District 10, the seat previously held by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis. Republican Tea Party activist Konni Burton and Democrat Libby Willis are running high-dollar campaigns to win that seat. Combined, they’ve raised more than $4.14 million from Republican and Democratic donors hoping to sway the only swing district among the 31 Texas Senate seats. Davis won the seat in 2008 from longtime Republican incumbent Kim Brimer and held off a GOP challenger in 2012. In both elections, Davis won by less than 3 percentage points.