Off to the races: Texas Republicans, Democrats set candidates for November election
The field for the November general election in Texas is set after Republicans and Democrats finished nominating their candidates for state offices Tuesday, with some incumbents narrowly defeating intraparty challengers and others falling to their opponents in the primary runoff elections.
A major focus of Tuesday's matchups revolved around Gov. Greg Abbott's successful push to remove Texas House Republican incumbents who last year rejected his signature school vouchers proposal as well as a vigorous challenge by ultra conservatives to oust House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, which ultimately failed.
While some races held wide margins throughout election day, others were neck and neck, including a race for a Texas Senate seat that came down to less than 100 votes and a Republican runoff for a congressional office was decided by less than 10 votes.
Molly Cook wins again, secures Texas Senate District 15
Fresh off a victory in a special election to take the reins of Texas Senate District 15 for the rest of the year, Molly Cook secured her chance to compete for the seat in November for a full term.
Cook, a Houston emergency room nurse, defeated state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, by 74 votes in the Democratic primary runoff, a result that came late overnight after early returns showed Johnson in the lead, according to the final but unofficial election results from the Texas Secretary of State's Office.
Of the 18,782 ballots cast in the runoff election, Cook received 9,428 to win the race by less than half of a percentage point, according to Tuesday's uncertified results.
Earlier this month in a special election to fill the remainder of the term left vacant by Sen. John Whitmire, who represented Houston in the Texas Senate for nearly four decades before being elected mayor of that city last year, Cook defeated Johnson to fill the unexpired term.
After her victory Tuesday, Cook is the favorite to win the seat in November in the heavily Democratic district against Republican challenger Joesph Trahan for a four-year term which will begin in January.