Few Election Surprises as Texas Finally Finishes Its Primaries

Signs outside Cedar Park Public Library on May 24 (Photo by Maggie Quinlan)

About 1 in 3 of those who voted in March chose to show up nearly three months later – and three weeks after voting in a totally different election – to finally set the state ballot for November. Statewide, that translated to just under 1 million on the GOP side and just under half a million on the Dem side, out of Texas' roughly 17 million registered voters.

The marquee event, of course, was the GOP smackdown between Ken Paxton and George P. Bush – perhaps the two most incompetent statewide electeds – for Paxton's attorney general post. The outcome here was never in doubt come election night, with K-Pax, whose closing argument was, "Help me put an end to the Bush dynasty," winning 2-to-1 against the incumbent land commissioner, whose wreckage of that office has alienated Republicans (the Alamo) and Democrats (Harvey relief) alike. The Bush clan is 0-3 in its last races – P.'s dad Jeb! in 2016, his cousin Pierce in a 2020 U.S. House race in Houston, and now this. ¡Hasta luego! Their only bright spot is that P. won Travis County by about 1,800 votes. Maybe he'll move here, switch parties, and run against Lloyd Doggett.

On the Dem side in the same race, Rochelle Garza finished what she started in March, defeating Joe Jaworski by a margin similar to Paxton's. Much closer, unaccountably, were the statewide run-offs for lieutenant governor and land commissioner; party-backed candidates Mike Collier and Jay Kleberg finished 10 and 5 points ahead of outgoing state Rep. Michelle Beckley of Carrollton and random candidate Sandragrace Martinez of San Anton­io, respectively.

At least Beckley, who likewise finished 10 points back of Collier in the first round, is an elected official, though by most reports a bad one. Martinez, a therapist with no discernible background or interest in issues faced by the General Land Office (maybe the Alamo?), came in first in March ahead of Kleberg, a longtime leader in land conservation and a scion of the family that owns the legendary King Ranch. That's a pretty damning testament to the failure of Texas Democrats to inform their electorate. According to Mark P. Jones, fellow in political science at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, Martinez likely was able to make it this far because Texas Democrats favor female and Latinx names on a ballot, particularly when they don't know much about the issues at stake. Kleberg's unimpressive victory is a weak start to the general election campaign, where he will face off against state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, R-Lakeway, who won her run-off without a sweat over her own rando opponent, Pastor Tim Westley.

Lakeway is in the new Texas House District 19, which will likely be repped in the Lege in January by former Austin City Council Member Ellen Troxclair, who defeated indicted Austin cop (and former police union veep) Justin Berry by 13 points. "We won with truth, grit, & grace," Troxclair wrote on Twitter shortly after the race was called. The new HD 19 sweeps Western Travis County into a district that stretches from Burnet to Boerne to Fredericksburg. Troxclair also mentioned this week's school shooting in Uvalde, where her husband, Caleb, is from and his family still lives. "I can't imagine hugging my babies for the last time, and I am strengthened in my resolve to fight for our children," she wrote. We can only imagine her gun-reform stances in the 88th Texas Legislature; the last one passed more than a dozen anti-gun-control measures. Just a week before the election, Gun Owners of America – for people who think the National Rifle Association is just too soft – announced its endorsement of Troxclair. "Gun owners deserve a strong, proven Second Amend­ment champion like Ellen Troxclair to represent them in Austin, NOT someone like Justin Berry who joins with gun control groups to further erode your rights." Berry's transgression? He testified in favor of a bill that would have made straw purchases – buying a gun for someone who cannot legally own one – a crime in itself.

For almost all Travis Dems, the statewides were the entire ballot, but a sliver in Southwest Austin chose Claudia Zapata as their champion to at least make Rep. Chip Roy, R-Dripping Springs, as miserable as possible. On the flip side, Republicans got to pick their cannon fodder to throw at Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar in November – rematch-seeker Jenny Garcia Sharon in Doggett's new TX-37, and former Corpus Christi mayor (for 37 days) and bona fide weirdo Dan McQueen in Casar's TX-35.

* Editor's note (Thursday, May 26, 11pm): This story has been updated to correct that Texas voters who participated in the Democratic or Republican primary may only vote in that party's run-off. Those who didn't vote in the first round may vote on either party's ballot. We regret our errors.