Texas Republican Senate primary will advance to a runoff
Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton will advance to a primary runoff election for the open Senate seat this May.
With 60% of votes counted in their races, the Associated Press reports Cornyn receiving 42.9% of the vote to Paxton’s 40.5%. Because neither candidate hit the 50% of the vote required to outwright win, the race will proceed to a runoff.
Cornyn is seeking his fifth term for a seat he has held since 2002, while current Texas attorney general Paxton has mounted a fierece bid to replace him.
My colleague Lauren Gambino has more on the race:
Key events
As we await results in Texas’s Democratic Senate primary – which may not be decided tonight after confusion at the polls sparked a court battle – the Associated Press has called a handful of other Democratic races in the state.
Gina Hinojosa is the Democratic nominee for governor – although she is unlikely to win the general election against incumbent Greg Abbott. No Democrat has won the state’s governorship since 1990.
Frederick Haynes is the Democratic nominee for the 30th district.
Latin music star Bobby Pulido is the party’s nominee for the 15th district.
Rhonda Hart won the nomination in the 36th district.
Laura Jones is the nominee for the 8th district.
John Cornyn promised a heated runoff against Ken Paxton, who he said would be “a dead weight at the top of the ticket for Republicans” after neither candidate won enough of the vote to win the Republican Senate primary outright.
“I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years,” he told reporters. “There is simply too much at stake in this midterm election for our state and for our country.”
“The final two years of President Trump’s agenda hangs in the balance,” he added.
Lauren Gambino
The voter confusion at the heart of this evening’s legal back-and-forth stems from a change to the voting rules that resulted in hundreds of people being turned away at the polls in Dallas County.
That was because the county Republican party refused to hold joint primaries with the Democrats, which prompted voters to be rerouted to assigned precincts rather than the countywide polling locations they typically use.
In one telling example, VoteBeat spoke to a woman who had walked 2.5 miles to cast her ballot, only to be told that she was in the wrong location.
“I walked up here because I want to vote so, so bad,” she told a reporter for the Dallas Free Press and Votebeat, adding that it felt like “your self-esteem and everything is torn down.”
Lauren Gambino
It was unclear if the Democratic Senate primary race would be called on Tuesday night, after the state Supreme Court intervened and halted a judge’s order extending voting hours in two key counties.
Jasmine Crockett already came out at her election night party told her supporters that they would not know the results this evening and suggested Republicans were intentionally trying to suppress the vote in her home base of Dallas county.
“Unfortunately, this is what Republicans like to do,” Crockett said. “They specifically targeted Dallas county and I think we all know why.”
Ken Paxton, the hard-right attorney general and a Republican candidate for Senate, filed the emergency petition to strike down the extension.
At James Talarico’s election night party in Austin, some supporters are beginning to trickle out – unclear of what to expect this evening. We still haven’t heard anything from the Talarico campaign as of 10pm local time.
Texas Republican Senate primary will advance to a runoff
Texas Republicans John Cornyn and Ken Paxton will advance to a primary runoff election for the open Senate seat this May.
With 60% of votes counted in their races, the Associated Press reports Cornyn receiving 42.9% of the vote to Paxton’s 40.5%. Because neither candidate hit the 50% of the vote required to outwright win, the race will proceed to a runoff.
Cornyn is seeking his fifth term for a seat he has held since 2002, while current Texas attorney general Paxton has mounted a fierece bid to replace him.
My colleague Lauren Gambino has more on the race:
The Texas state supreme court has ordered ballots cast in Dallas county after the 7pm CT close of polls be separated out from other ballots, following an appeal of a lower court’s ruling by state attorney general Ken Paxton.
It is unclear whether Paxton will pursue a similar ruling in Williamson county, where polls were similarly allowed to stay open late following voter confusion – or if those ballots will be counted.
At her watch party, congresswoman Jasmine Crockett said she doesn’t expect results in the Democratic Senate primary tonight.
“I want you to enjoy yourselves, but I won’t be back tonight because I have no idea of when we’re going to get results,” she said. “I can tell you, people were disenfranchised.”
The Associated Press has called more results in North Carolina’s congressional primaries.
Richard Ojeda won the 9th district’s Democratic nomination.
Laurie Buckhout is the Republican nominee for the state’s 1st district.
Raymond Smith won the 3rd district’s Democratic nomination.
Cyril Jefferson is the Democratic nominee in the state’s 6th district.
While Texas has counted nearly 60% of votes across both its Democratic and Republican primaries, we don’t expect to know the results of the Democratic Senate primary until late this evening as polls in candidate Jasmine Crockett’s home district stayed open late following voter confusion.
My colleague Lauren Gambino reports more on the heated race unfolding there:
As polls began to close across Texas on Tuesday evening, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett and state representative James Talarico were locked in a fiercely contested and unpredictable primary that has drawn record-level turnout and outsized national attention.
The marquee Senate race, unfolding in a state Democrats have not carried statewide in more than three decades, has become an early test of competing political playbooks for challenging Republican dominance – and Donald Trump. In the final weeks, the race has raised fraught questions about race, identity and electability for a party searching for a path back to power in Washington.
Polls have closed in Texas, including in counties where Democratic voters were allowed to cast their ballots until 10pm ET, and the Associated Press is beginning to call the results of a handful of House Republican primaries there.
So far:
Brian Babin has won the Republican nomination for Texas’ 36th district.
Randy Weber is the Republican nominee for Texas’ 14th district.
Keith Self is the Republican nominee for Texas’ 3rd district.
Michael Cloud is the Republican nominee for Texas’ 27th district.
Tano Tijerina won the Republican nomination for Texas’ 28th district.
Texas governor Greg Abbott has won a record fourth nomination by the Republican party in his quest for reelection – an expected result as the incumbent facing no serious competition this primary.
Abbott was first elected in 2014. His predecessor, Rick Perry, was the first Texas governor elected to three consecutive four-year terms. If Abbott is relected in the general election this November – as seems likely – he will achieve a record four back-to-back terms as Texas governor.
Lauren Gambino
The Talarico campaign is feeling confident. Early indications suggest the candidate is performing well with Hispanic voters, seen as a critical swing bloc. He currently leads Crockett by more than Webb County, which is 95% Hispanic. He is also ahead by 29 percentage points in Cameron county, where Hispanic voters make up a majority.
The votes are still coming in, and the polls in Dallas remain open. But the crowd is buzzing and excitement is building as we inch towards polls closing across the state.
From the press table in the back, I saw one Talarico campaign staffer grin big as he shared a tweet projecting strong favorability for the candidate to win.
Confusion at Texas polls as state supreme court blocks earlier ruling that extended voting deadline
While Democratic polling locations remained open late in three counties across Texas after confusion over polling locations, the Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocked an earlier judge order allowing polls to remain open until 10pm ET in Dallas County.
Polls were allowed to stay open late in Dallas, Willamson and El Paso counties. But according to the Texas Tribune, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a lower judge’s order to keep Dallas county polls open late after attorney general Ken Paxton appealed the ruling.
As we reported earlier, some voters in Dallas and Willliamson counties were turned away at polling locations and directed to different voting precincts, causing confusion and frustration. El Paso county extended its voting hours due to a problem with the county’s check-in system.
The Associated Press has called the results in a handful of tonight’s elections. Here are the outcomes:
Voters have selected Jack Codiga as the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 12th district.
Brad Knott is the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 13th district.
Jamie Ager is the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 11th district.
Chuck Hubbard is the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 5th district.
Ashley Bell is the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 10th district.
And Coly Watson is the Democratic nominee in North Carolina’s 8th district.
North Carolina voters pick their Republican and Democratic US Senate candidates
More results are coming in from North Carolina’s primary races.
Former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and ex-Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley each won their party’s US Senate nominations in North Carolina. The results of their forthcoming fall campaign could determine control of the chamber.
And Representative Tim Moore has won the Republican nomination for U.S. House in North Carolina’s 14th Congressional District.