Correction: In HD119, Liz Campos defeated Jennifer Ramos, 56%-44%, not the other way around, as we reported late last night. The report on our website has been corrected. We regret the error.
Campaign Finance: Today is the deadline for federal and state officeholders and candidates to file campaign finance reports covering various periods through June 30 (State runoff candidates are excluded.). Federal reports are available online in real time, and we will have our Crib Sheets updated by the end of the day. State reports are not typically available online until the next morning, so we will update those numbers tomorrow (Thursday).
Last night’s results remain unofficial. The outcomes of close races could change in the next few days.
As far as we can tell, all counties have counted the absentee ballots they received through yesterday, which was the deadline for most voters’ ballots to be returned. There remain a small but potentially results-shifting number of overseas and military ballots, most of which had to be postmarked by yesterday and received within five days. Voters who cast provisional ballots also have the opportunity to cure whatever caused them to vote provisionally, which would also enable those ballots to be counted.
Results remain official until they are canvassed, which will occur next week. At that point, candidates may request a recount.
Turnout: As of 10 a.m. this morning, with all 254 counties and all 3,178 polling locations reporting, a total of 956K people voted in the Democratic runoff for U.S. Senate, the highest number of votes since the 1990 gubernatorial runoff. More votes were cast in this year’s Democratic runoff than in 2014, 2016 and 2018 combined. Not quite 6% of registered voters participated in the Democratic runoff, which is the highest percentage turnout since 1994.
It will take us a while to calculate Republican turnout because there was no statewide race. We will need to go county-by-county. The number of votes cast is almost certainly the third most in state history. Percent turnout of all registered voters is either the third or fourth highest in state history.
Combined runoff votes was the highest since 1972, when nearly 2M people voted in the Democratic runoff and 57K people voted in the Republican runoff. More than 1M Texans voted in the runoffs combined for the third time since 1990.
Incumbents in Runoffs: Four of the six incumbent legislators fell in last night’s runoffs, assuming results in HD100 and HD148 hold. Since 1996, just seven out of the 34 incumbent legislators forced into runoffs prevailed. Rep. J.D. Sheffield (R-Gatesville), who faced the largest primary vote percentage deficit of any incumbent in 24 years, became the 11th straight incumbent who finished second in the primary to lose the runoff.
Self-funding Woes: With Kathaleen Wall’s defeat last night to Fort Bend Co. Sheriff Troy Nehls (R), nine of the last 10 Texans who contributed at least $3M to their own congressional campaigns have lost. Hat tip to the Houston Chronicle’s Jeremy Wallace for that one.
©2020 Texas Election Source LLC
