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West Texans went to the polls on Tuesday and for the most part helped support a GOP sweep for the top-ticket positions across the state.
Voters in Brewster, Jeff Davis and Presidio Counties did favor Incumbent Pete Gallego (D) over challenger Will Hurd (R) in the Texas 23rd District U.S. House race. Still, Brewster and Jeff Davis voters favored Greg Abbott (R) in the governor’s race – Presidio voters chose Wendy Davis (D).
Gallego’s popularity in the tri-county area wasn’t enough to secure his re-election – he lost a neck-and-neck race to Hurd. The race ran into the early hours of Wednesday morning, with Gallego calling Hurd to concede defeat just before 1 am.
“I want to congratulate Will Hurd on winning this hard fought race. While the airwaves were flooded with millions of dollars in attack ads, Will and I managed to keep things relatively positive and I hope he continues that positivity as he heads to Congress,” Gallego said in a statement.
Here’s a rundown of some locally-contested races:
Jeff Davis County
County Judge
Jeanette Duer (R) – 595
Fred Granado (D) – 466
Countywide Justice of the Peace
Mary Ann Luedecke (Write-in) – 523
Star Smith (D) – 486
Brewster County
County Judge
Eleazar Cano (D) – 1704
Jerry Johnson (R) – 1216
County Commissioner, Pct. 2
Hugh Garrett (D) – 449
Joan Johnson (R) – 355
Justice of the Peace, Pct. 1
Gilbert Valenzuela (D) – 1339
Robert “Bob” Steele (R) – 914
Presidio County
Justice of the Peace, Pct. 1
David Beebe (D) – 442
Shanna Elmore (Write-in) – 312
We were joined throughout Tuesday evening by a number of political observers and candidates.
Evan Smith joined us on the airwaves at 8 PM as his Texas Tribune called that Texas sweep for Republican candidates. The Tribune also announced that Proposition 1 on the ballot, the transportation funding initiative, will pass.
A statewide GOP sweep means Greg Abbott as governor, Dan Patrick as lieutenant governor, Ken Paxton as attorney general, Glenn Hegar as comptroller, George P. Bush as land commissioner, Ryan Sitton as railroad commissioner, and Sid Miller as agriculture
“It seems to be one of those Republican types of years,” says Brooks Landgraf (R), the Odessa-based State Representative for District 81.
In the Marathon School Board race, voters returned Donaciano Fuentez, Lyn Shackelford, and Daniel Eaton to the board, in addition newcomer Steve Griffis will be joining the board.
Fort Davis voters added Pene Ferguson, Bob Dillard, Julie McIvor and David Whitesell to the Fort Davis ISD board.
Second correction, November 11 – Initial election returns from Brewster County released on Tuesday, November 4 showed Daniel Eaton had won a Marathon ISD school board seat over Kent Barlow. Updated returns released Wednesday showed Barlow had actually won the seat.
Days later, new returns again flipped the race in favor of Eaton. Marathon ISD Superintendent Ebby Loeffler says the final results show Daniel Eaton has – as originally reported by the county – won the seat. Our apologies for the confusion.