Pardon Our Dust
We recently launched this new site and are still in the process of updating some of our archived content. Some details of this article may be incomplete, links may be broken, and other elements may not display properly yet. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
The 2020 Super Tuesday primary was as exciting as expected. It is expected that this primary experienced the highest voter turnout in recent years. The races in Texas brought a few surprises, but for the most part, challenged incumbents easily won their respected primaries.
Presidential Race
In a Republican state, all eyes were on the Democratic presidential primary this year. Polling leading up to Super Tuesday had U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders slightly ahead of Vice President Joe Biden for who would get the most votes in Texas. Ultimately, Biden won with thirty-three percent of the vote with Sanders coming in second and Mike Bloomberg coming in third. Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar exited the primary after the early voting period ended in Texas, but before Super Tuesday ballots were cast.
At a rally in Dallas on Monday night, Vice President Biden received endorsements from numerous local and state officials, as well as endorsements from former Presidential candidates Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Beto O’Rourke. Recent polling in Texas showed that having Vice President Biden at the top of the ticket was better for Democrats in down-ballot races in November. The Democrats are nine seats short of flipping the Texas House of Representatives, so Democratic leaders made a late push for Vice President Biden to win, which ultimately pushed him over the edge with Election Day voters.
In the Texas Republican primary, Donald Trump easily defeated his six challengers with 94 percent of the vote.
U.S. Senate Race
Senator John Cornyn easily won his Republican primary with over 76 percent of the vote. The Democratic primary had 12 candidates vying to challenge Senator Cornyn in the November. No candidate was able to secure a majority in the Democratic primary. MJ Hegar came ahead with almost 23 percent of the vote. At this time, it is still too soon to tell who will face her in a runoff election. Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez currently has 13.7 percent of the vote and Texas Senator Royce West has 13.6 percent of the vote. This one may be determined by mail-in and provisional ballots.
As you may remember, MJ Hegar, a former air force helicopter pilot, narrowly lost to Congressman John Carter last election cycle. Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, co-founder of the Workers Defense Project, received endorsements from numerous progressive organizations and PACs. Texas Senator Royce West currently represents Dallas-based Senate District 23 and is highly respected by the Democratic establishment.
Congressional Races
Six Texas Republican Congressmen have decided to retire and thus there will be six open seats to fill in November. The Republican primary had a crowded primary with 103 candidates in thirteen Congressional races. The Democrats had thirty-eight candidates in seven congressional races.
Each primary had races to watch. The senior-most Republican woman in Congress, Kay Granger (R-Fort Worth) faced a tough opponent in the Republican primary. Ultimately, Congresswoman Granger was able to prevail over Tea Party-backed Chris Putnam with over 58 percent of the vote.
In the twelve-person race to replace Congressman Bill Flores (R-Bryan) in the Republican primary, former Congressman Pete Sessions will face Renee Swann in a runoff. By way of background, Sessions represented Dallas-based Congressional District 32 for eleven terms. In 2018, he lost to now-Congressman Collin Allred. Instead of challenging Congressman Allred in the upcoming November election, Sessions relocated and decided to run in Congressional District 17.
In the race to replace Congressman Kenny Marchant (R-Coppell) in Congressional District 24, former Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne won with over 60 percent of the vote in the Republican primary.
All eyes were on South Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar’s (D-Laredo) race in the Democrat primary. Congressman Cuellar was challenged by Jessica Cisneros, who received numerous endorsements from Democratic-leaning organizations and even current Democratic members of Congress. Ultimately, Congressman Cuellar won the primary with 51.8 percent of the vote.
In San Antonio, Gina Ortiz Jones won her five person democratic primary to move on to the general election in Congressional District 23. If you remember, Ortiz Jones narrowly lost to Congressman Will Hurd in this district in 2018. With Congressman Hurd’s retirement, all eyes are on Ortiz Jones to flip this seat from red to blue in November.
It is projected when all of the mail-in ballots are counted that there will be seven Democratic Congressional runoffs and eight Republican run-offs in May. These are noted in red below. The outright winners in each primary are notated in bold.
|
DISTRICT |
PRIMARY |
CANDIDATES |
|
TX Congressional District 2 |
Democratic |
Elisa Cardnell vs. Sima Ladjevardian vs. Travis Olsen |
|
TX Congressional District 3 |
Democratic |
Tanner Do vs. Sean McCaffity vs. Lulu Seikaly |
|
TX Congressional District 8 |
Democratic |
Elizabeth Hernandez vs. Laura Jones |
|
TX Congressional District 9 |
Democratic |
Al Green. (i) vs. Melissa Wilson |
|
TX Congressional District 10 |
Democratic |
Pritesh Gandhi vs. Shannon Hutcheson vs. Mike Siegel |
|
TX Congressional District 12 |
Democratic |
Lisa Welch vs. Danny Anderson |
|
TX Congressional District 13* |
Democratic |
Timothy W. Gassaway vs. Greg Sagan vs. Gus Truillo |
|
TX Congressional District 14 |
Democratic |
Sanjaetta Barnes vs. Adrienne Bell vs. Eddie Fischer vs. Robert “Puga” Thomas vs. Mikal Williams |
|
TX Congressional District 17* |
Democratic |
William Foster III vs. David Anthony Jaramillo vs. Rick Kennedy |
|
TX Congressional District 18 |
Democratic |
Sheila Jackson Lee (i) vs. Michael Allen vs.Donovan Boson vs. Marc Flores vs. Jerry Ford Sr. vs. Stevens Orozco vs. Bimal Patel |
|
TX Congressional District 20 |
Democratic |
Joaquin Castro (i) vs. Rob Hostetler vs. Justin Lecea |
|
TX Congressional District 21 |
Democratic |
Wendy R. Davis vs. Jenni Lou Leeder |
|
TX Congressional District 22* |
Democratic |
Sri Preston Kulkarni vs. Nyanza Davis Moore vs. Carmine Petrillo III vs. Derrick A. Reed |
|
TX Congressional District 23* |
Democratic |
Rosalinda “Rosey” Ramos Abuabara vs. Jaime Escudervs. Gina Ortiz Jones vs. Ricardo R. Madrid vs. Efrain V. Valdez |
|
TX Congressional District 24* |
Democratic |
John Biggan vs. Richard Fleming vs. Crystal Fletcher vs. Jan McDowell vs. Kim Olson vs. Candace Valenzuela vs. Sam Vega |
|
TX Congressional District 25 |
Democratic |
Julie Oliver vs. Heidi Sloan |
|
TX Congressional District 26 |
Democratic |
Neil Durrance vs. Carol H. Iannuzzi vs. Mat Pruneda |
|
TX Congressional District 27 |
Democratic |
Ricardo “Rick” De La Fuente vs Charlie Jackson |
|
TX Congressional District 28 |
Democratic |
Henry Cuellar (i) vs. Jessica Cisneros |
|
TX Congressional District 30 |
Democratic |
Eddie Bernice Johnson (i) vs. Hasani Burton vs. Barbara Mallory Caraway vs. Shenita “Shae” Cleveland |
|
TX Congressional District 31 |
Democratic |
Michael Edward Grimes vs. Eric Hanke vs. Donna Imam vs. Dan Janjigian vs. Christine Eady Mann vs. Tammy Young |
|
TX Congressional District 33 |
Democratic |
Marc Veasey (i) vs. Sean Paul Segura |
|
TX Congressional District 34 |
Democratic |
Filemon Vela (i) vs. Osbert Rodriguez Haro III vsl Diego Zavala |
|
TX Congressional District 35 |
Democratic |
Lloyd Doggett (i) vs. Rafael Alcoser III |
|
TX Congressional District 1 |
Republican |
Louie Gohmert (i) vs. Johnathan Kyle Davidson |
|
TX Congressional District 5 |
Republican |
Lance Gooden (i) vs. Don Hill |
|
TX Congressional District 7 |
Republican |
Maria espinoza vs. Wesley Hunt vs. Jim Noteware vs. Kyle Preston vs. Laique Rehman vs. Cindy Siegel |
|
TX Congressional District 8 |
Republican |
Kevin Brady (i) vs. Melissa Esparza-Mathis vs. Kirk Osborn |
|
TX Congressional District 9 |
Republican |
Julian A Martinez vs. Jon Menefee vs. Johnny Teague |
|
TX Congressional District 11* |
Republican |
Gene Barber vs. Brandon Batch vs. Jamie Berryhill vs. J.D. Faircloth vs. Casey Gray vs. J. Ross Lacy vs. Ned Luscombe vs. August Pfluger vs. Robert Tucker vs. Wesley W. Virdell |
|
TX Congressional District 12 |
Republican |
Kay Granger (i) vs. Chris Putnam |
|
TX Congressional District 13* |
Republican |
Catherine “I Swear” Carr vs. Jamie Culley vs. Chris Ekstrom vs. Jason Foglesong vs. Lee Harvey vs. Elaine Hays vs. Richard Herman vs. Ronny Jackson vs. Diane Knowlton vs. Matt McArthur vs. Mark Neese vs. Asusena Reséndiz vs.Vance Snider vs. Josh Winegarner vs. Monique Worthy |
|
TX Congressional District 14 |
Republican |
Randy Weber (i) vs. Joshua Foxworth |
|
TX Congressional District 15 |
Republican |
Monica De La Cruz-Hernandez vs. Ryan Krause vs. Tim Westley |
|
TX Congressional District 16 |
Republican |
Anthony Aguero vs. Irene Armendariz-Jackson vs. Jaime Arriola Jr. vs. Patrick Hernandez-Cigarruista vs. Blanca Ortiz Trout vs. Sam Williams |
|
TX Congressional District 17* |
Republican |
Ahmad Adnan vs. Scott Bland vs. George W. Hindman vs. Todd Kent vs. Laurie Godfrey McReynolds vs. Jeff Oppenheim vs. Kristen Alamo Rowin vs. David Saucedo vs. Pete Sessions vs. Trent Sutton vs. Renee Swann vs. Elianor Vessali |
|
TX Congressional District 18 |
Republican |
Robert M. Cadena vs. Wendell Champion vs. Nellie “Truly” Heiskell vs. T.C. Manning vs. Nathan J. Milliron vs. Ava Reynero Pate |
|
TX Congressional District 19 |
Republican |
Jodey Arrington (i) vs. Vance W. Boyd |
|
TX Congressional District 20 |
Republican |
Gary Allen vs. Dominick Dina vs. Mauro Garza vs. Anita Kegley vs. Tammy K. Orta |
|
TX Congressional District 22* |
Republican |
Pierce Bush vs. Jon Camarillo vs. Douglas Haggard vs. Aaron Hermes vs. Greg Hill vs. Matt Hinton vs. Dan Mathews vs. Diana Miller vs. Troy Nehls vs. Brandon T. Penko vs. Shandon Phan vs. Bangar Reddy vs. Howard Steele vs. Kathaleen Wall vs. Joe Walz |
|
TX Congressional District 23* |
Republican |
Alma Arredondo-Lynch vs. Darwin Boedeker vs. Alia Garcia-Ureste vs. Tony Gonzales vs. Cecil B. “Burt” Jones vs. Jeff McFarlin vs. Raul Reyes vs. Sharon Breckenridge Thomas vs. Ben Van Winkle |
|
TX Congressional District 24* |
Republican |
Sunny Chaparala vs. Beth Van Duyne vs. David Feganv vs. Jeron Liverman vs. Desi Maes |
|
TX Congressional District 25 |
Republican |
Roger Williams (i) vs. Keith Neuendorff |
|
TX Congressional District 26 |
|