Voters went to the polls last night across the state to decide who will be on the ballot for the November general election with some hotly contested state and local races coming down to the wire, and some not close at all.
Locally, Kelley Crisp defeated incumbent Jerry Rochelle in the race for Criminal District Attorney by a vote of 8,024 to 4,062.
One other race of great interest was the race for Texas House District 1. Cass County businessman Chris Spencer edged out Lamar County native Josh Bray in a very close race with 51% of the vote. The two were deadlocked and dead even as everyone awaited the vote totals for Bowie County, but Spencer would prevail in Bowie County and get enough votes to avoid the need for a runoff. The final tally was 14,913 for Spencer to Bray’s 14,400.
Other local races included wins for Precinct 2 Commissioner Tom Whitten and Precinct 4 Commissioner Mike Carter, along with incumbent Republican Party chair Gary Singleton.
JP Welsh won the Republican Precinct Chair 1A by a vote of 15 to 12, Eric Cain took the Precinct 3A Republican Party Chair race 104 to 96 and Zach Rateliff won the Precinct 11A Republican Party Chair race by a vote of 350 to 213.
In some noteworthy statewide races, in the Texas race for Attorney General, Mayes Middleton and Chip Roy will advance to a runoff, as will John Cornyn and Ken Paxton in their bid for s spot on the ballot for U.S. Senate.
Former Bowie County Democrat Jasmine Crockett was defeated in her attempt to go up against Cornyn or Paxton in November as she was defeated by James Talarico in the Democratic primary. Talarico received 1,188,253 votes to Crockett’s 1, 034,096, a margin of 52.8 percent to 45.9 percent.
All of the propositions on both sides of the aisle passed by wide margins.
