In the primary elections, a number of candidates did not gain 50% of the vote. As a result, runoff elections were held on May 24, 2022 for the first and second place candidates to compete. The winner of each runoff race will face the other major party’s nominee, as well as possible Libertarian and Green contestants.
LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR
In the primaries, incumbent Republican Dan Patrick decisively defeated all of his party opponents. On the Democrat side, Mike Collier entered the lieutenant governor race hoping to unseat Patrick. Collier entered into the runoffs with more votes in the primaries than Michelle Beckley. As expected, Collier easily defeated Beckley by gaining 54.8% of the votes. Upon victory, Collier promised to end culture wars, fix the border and electric grid crises, and lower property taxes. In November, Collier will face off against Patrick for the lieutenant governor seat.
It is predicted that incumbent Republican Dan Patrick will attain his third term as lieutenant governor. In the primaries, his 1.4 million votes outnumber all of the Democrats’ votes combined. In addition to votes from other Republican candidates, Patrick will most likely defeat his Democrat opponent by a large margin.
ATTORNEY GENERAL
In the race for the attorney general position, both leading Republican and Democrat candidates compete in the runoffs.
The Republican contestants were incumbent Ken Paxton and former Land Commissioner George P. Bush. Entering the runoffs with a narrow lead over Bush, Ken Paxton managed to win ⅔ of the votes. Most of Paxton’s votes came from the DFW, Houston, and San Antonio regions. However, Paxton was outnumbered by Bush in Austin, which indicates Paxton’s trouble in gaining supporters in the state capital. After the close victory, Paxton reminded his supporters of the Uvalde school shooting and promised to maintain security on the southern border.
In May, the State Bar of Texas claimed that Paxton “misrepresented” facts to the Supreme Court in order to overturn the 2020 presidential elections. Also, eight of his ten deputies were fired or quit. These deputies then accused Paxton of bribery and abuse of power in office. As a result, Paxton denied wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty in spite of being under investigation by the FBI.
Currently, George P. Bush is the only member of his renowned family still in office. However, in January, Bush will officially step down as Land Commissioner. This signals the first time the Bush dynasty has been out of elected office for the first time in 40 years.
The Democrat contenders were Rochelle Garza and Joe Jarwoski. The former lawyer of the American Civil Liberties Union, Garza secured the nomination against Jarwoski by gaining 62% of the votes, mostly from the DFW and Austin areas. On the day of her victory, Garza did not mention her primary win. Instead, she acknowledged the Uvalde School Shootings and pledged to combat gun violence.
It is predicted that Ken Paxton will defeat his Democrat opposition. Despite enduring accusations of corruption, Paxton remains to be a popular candidate among most Republicans. He has forecasted to most likely garner all the support from Republican voters and politicians. This indicates that his voters will outnumber those of Democrats by 1 million votes.
LAND COMMISSIONER
The land commissioner oversees an agency that manages 13 million acres of state land, administers disaster recovery funds, and contributes to public school funding.
For the Republicans, George P. Bush’s campaign for attorney general left the seat open for contenders. The Republican candidates are Dawn Buckingham and Tim Westley. Dawn Buckingham is a doctor and member of the Texas Senate since 2017. She was the first Republican from Travis County ever elected to the Senate and the first woman to be elected to represent District 24 (a suburban-dominated area north of Dallas and Tarrant counties).
As for the Democrats, Sandragrace Martinez entered the race with the most votes in the primary. However, Martinez lost to Jay Kleberg by 28,000 votes. Kleberg is also a conservationist, film producer, and former associate director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Foundation. Kleberg centers his platform on addressing environmental issues such as climate change, pollution, and energy problems. In November, Kleberg will take on Buckingham in a battle over Bush’s former seat.
It is predicted that Republican Dawn Buckingham will prevail over Democrat Jay Kleberg. In the primaries, in addition to Buckingham’s 679,000 votes, Republican votes totaled over 1.6 million. Total Democrat votes only reached 986,000 votes. Many conclude that Buckingham will gain most of the 1.6 million votes, which places her incomplete dominance over the election.
RAILROAD COMMISSIONER
The Railroad Commission regulates the state’s oil and gas industry. There are three members serving on this commission board, but one seat is open. Wayne Christian and Sarah Stogner entered into the runoff elections for the Republican Party.
Wayne Christian has served in the Texas House of Representatives from 1997 to 2013. Up to now, Christian received endorsements from Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and three members of Texas’ delegation to the US House of Representatives. Christian is known for having a strong record of fighting against frivolous regulations and working to preserve free markets and American energy dominance.
As an oil and gas attorney, Sarah Stogner said that she represented landowners and oil companies, and operators for over a decade. She seeks to provide the state with clean and affordable energy, preventing federal intervention in energy regulation and helping establish global ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards.
In the end, Wayne Christian defended his incumbent seat against Sarah Stogner. Christian outscored his opponent by a ratio of nearly 2:1. It is predicted that Wayne Christian will defeat Democrat Luke Warford due to the high probability that he will gain most of the Republican votes in the primaries (approximately 1.6 million). If this occurs, Christian would outnumber Warford on a scale of 2:1 in terms of votes.
TEXAS BOARD OF EDUCATION
Currently, there are 15 districts within the Texas Board of Education. Nine of them are held by Republicans, and six are held by Democrats. This year, four of these districts’ candidates are in the runoffs.
In District 1, Melissa Ortega and Laura Marquez head into the runoffs for the Democrat Party. With almost all of the votes in, Ortega is declared the winner. Ortega will compete against Republican Michael Steven in the November Election. It is predicted that the Democrats will win this district due to the total number of Democrat voters outnumbering those of the Republicans.
In District 2, Victor Perez and Pete Garcia represented the Democrats in the runoffs. Perez closely defeated Garcia by a mere 4,000 votes. Perez will head into the November election to face off against Republican LJ Francis, an educator, and engineer in Nueces County. Perez’s career experience includes working as a teacher, principal, and executive director of the Pharr Economic Development Corporation. It is predicted that this district will be in contention due to the margin of primary voters for both Democrats and Republicans being at 7,000 (favoring Democrats).
In District 4, Staci Childs and Coretta Mallet-Fontenot represented the Democrats in the runoff elections. Coming into the runoffs, Mallet-Fontenot possessed more votes than Childs. However, Childs defeated her opponent by 5,000 votes to secure her victory in the district. The reason for this is that no Republicans entered the election in District 4. Childs’ career experience includes owning a private legal practice and working as an attorney and language arts instructor.
In District 13 (DFW metroplex), entering unopposed, Aicha Davis garnered over 86,000 votes for the Democrats in the primaries. Kathryn Monnette emerged with the most votes. in the primaries, only leading A. Denise Russell, her second-place contender, by 200 votes. In the runoffs, Kathryn decisively defeated Russell and will compete in the November election against Davis. However, it is predicted that incumbent Aicha Davis will maintain her seat for the Democrats due to having more voters than all of the four Republicans in the primaries combined.
CONCLUSION
Currently, Republicans seem to dominate across the board. Many Republican incumbents are seeking their second or third terms after bolstering their platforms through rallies and aligning with certain politicians who their voters admire. However, many Democrats are starting to counter the Republican dominance. For instance, Beto O’Rourke and Rochelle Garza are beginning to fight the many-termed Republican incumbents. Also, some successful candidates proclaim moderate objectives in order to gain popularity from both sides of the political spectrum. For example, some of Mike Collier’s objectives happen to align with those of Republicans (e.g. lower taxes). Successful candidates will have six months to hold rallies, garner fundraisings, and prepare for debates against opposing parties. Common debate topics would include gun violence, border crisis, abortion, and responses to electric and natural disasters. In November, millions of Texans will vote in the Midterm Elections that will determine this state’s political future.
