Early voting started this week for runoff races in primary elections in Texas. Voters can go to the polls to cast an early ballot through Friday for election day on May 28.
If you voted in the Republican or Democratic primary on March 5, you can’t switch parties to vote in the runoff.
We’ve highlighted some runoff races already — including House Speaker Dade Phelan’s fight to keep his place on the November ballot. But what about other contests around the state?
Juan Betancourt, a reporter for the Denton Record-Chronicle, covered two seats that have primary runoffs in North Texas.
The District 30 Texas Senate seat was recently vacated by Drew Springer, a Republican. Both parties’ primaries went to a runoff on March 5.
“We now have Brent Hagenbuch, a Denton County businessman and former county GOP chair, and Jace Yarbrough, who is a lawyer,” Betancourt said. “For this race, it is interesting because Brent Hagenbuch is facing a lawsuit for his residency. His opponents during the election cycle accused him of not living (in Denton County). They said he lied about it, but he still was really popular among Denton County supporters.”
On the Democratic side in District 30, there are two contenders: Michael Braxton and Dale Frey. Betancourt said the candidates have similar takes on key issues.
“It’s their first time running in a political campaign,” he said. “It does seem like they have a lot of similar priorities, such as health care, supporting school funding and so on.”
Texas House District 64 has a runoff that’s a rematch from two years ago on the Republican side.
“Lynn Stucky, the incumbent, is facing Andy Hopper,” Betancourt said. “Technically, Hopper did win against Stucky during the March primaries by just a small margin of votes, but this race could go either way just because the margin was so close.”
Top Texas Republicans have weighed in on this race, as well. Incumbent Stucky was endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott while Hopper was endorsed by Attorney General Ken Paxton — Stucky voted to impeach Paxton in the House, earning him the AG’s ire.
Primary runoffs are usually low-turnout races, so a few voters can make a difference in the outcome, Betancourt said.
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