Sylvia Garcia will succeed the late Mario Gallegos as the state senator for Senate district 6. Garcia is a longtime county commissioner from the east side of Harris County who lost her seat to Jack Morman, a little-known Republican trial lawyer, in a huge upset in November 2011.

In the runoff to determine Gallegos’s successor,Garcia won both the early vote and the election-day vote.

EARLY VOTE
Garcia 5,101  –  53.42%
Alvarado 4,448 – 46.58%

TOTAL VOTE
Garcia 9,562 – 52.89%
Alvarado 8,514 – 47.10%

This was a big-money election. Texans for Lawsuit Reform was all in for Alvarado and Steve Mostyn was all in for Garcia. Mostyn actually won one, for a change. One of the peculiarities of this election was that newly minted Republican senator Larry Taylor, a Republican, blockwalked for Alvarado.