I’ll be reporting on the runoffs tonight. Dewhurst vs. Cruz is the most important race, of course, but there also are a number of runoffs for legislative seats. UPDATE: Aaron Pena just tweeted (per the Trib) Cruz 65%, Dewhurst 35% in Hidalgo Co. early returns. Cruz grabbed a 5-point lead early and has held it throughout. Early vote statewide:
Cruz 52.29%
Dewhurst 47.70%
HOPSON-CLARDY
Clardy swamped Hopson in the early vote coming out of Nacogdoches County:
Clardy 2,535
Hopson 487
However, Hopson won Cherokee County by more than a thousand votes. Hopson needs a big win in Rusk County to hold onto his seat. No returns yet from Rusk.
LANDTROOP-KING
S. MILLER-SHEFFIELD
LOZANO-WILSON
San Patricio County early vote has a big lead for Wilson (913-413)
VILLABLA-B. KEFFER
KLICK-SAPP
MCKNIGHT-SPRINGER
B. RATLIFF-NGUYEN
Nguyen led the primary, but Ratliff is believed to have narrowed the gap with mailers accusing Nguyen of lobbying for Obamacare.
WENTWORTH-CAMPBELL
The first thing to watch for in this race is the Bexar County early vote. If Wentworth is not well ahead–he needs to win Bexar by 58%–he’s in trouble. His only other good county in the district is Comal, and he needs at least to break even there. Guadalupe could give him a boost. Travis and Hays are problematic, at best.
UPDATE:
Wentworth is toast, done. Early vote in Bexar:
Campbell 64.76%
Wentworth 34.75%
Campbell won the early vote in every county.
COLE-LEACH
Cole ran and lost in 2011.
G. BONNEN-SITTON
I think Bonnen should win this. Just the early vote is in:
Bonnen: 57.0%
Sitton: 42.9%
R. Miller-Chaumette
Miller is a longtime political operative in Fort Bend County. This is one of those races between a politician and a civic leader that the civic leader is going to be hard-pressed to win.