9/18/18, “Flores defeats Gallego in Senate District 19,” San Antonio Express-News, Dylan McGuiness
“Voters elected political newcomer Pete Flores to the Texas Senate on Tuesday, flipping a Democratic district red for the first time in 139 years and further bolstering Republicans’ supermajority in the chamber ahead of the November elections.
A retired game warden, Flores defeated former state and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego for the Senate District 19 seat after receiving backing from some of the state’s most prominent politicians, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and U.S. Sens John Cornyn and Ted Cruz….
Flores’ win marked an incredible upset in a district that political observers said shouldn’t have been competitive for Republicans. Low turnout in special elections and high-level GOP interests in preserving a Senate supermajority helped push Flores across the line, they said.
“It will provide a completely unexpected gift for Republicans for the next legislative session,” said Mark Jones, a professor of political science at Rice University. Jones said Flores’ victory all but assured a Republican supermajority next year, which would allow Senate Republicans to bring bills to the floor without any Democratic support….
Late Tuesday, the Republican Party of Texas touted Flores’ win.
“Congratulations to Peter Flores on his stunning victory in SD 19 tonight — a thrilling win for Peter Flores, the citizens of SD 19 and Republicans across Texas,” Chairman James Dickey said in a statement. “We are confident that Senator-elect Flores will fight tenaciously for the conservative principles in the Texas Senate that have helped Texas become the best state to call home and the state that has been awarded with the title of best state in the country for business.”
Flores and Gallego emerged from an eight-candidate field in first- and second-place, respectively, in July’s special election to replace former Sen. Carlos Uresti. The longtime lawmaker vacated his seat in June after being convicted of 11 felony charges.
More than 25,000 Texans voted in the early voting period and by mail before Tuesday. Some county election officials said they’ve seen higher turnout in the runoff than the special election a few months ago.
Brandon Rottinghaus, a professor of political science at the University of Houston and author of “Inside Texas Politics,” said Flores’ candidacy energized state GOP leaders who saw the district as a potential steal.
“The Republicans’ margin is in danger because you may have a couple of the Senate districts that could flip (in November),” he said. “If this district could flip to the Republicans, the Democrats would have an even higher hurdle to even be relevant in the state Senate.”
In Medina County, a line started to form at the polling location in Castroville around 4:30 p.m.
Hilda Mendoza, the election judge there, said turnout was higher than expected, which she said was likely because the election pitted a Republican against a Democrat.
“It was an enormous … increase” from the special election across Devine, Hondo and Castroville, Mendoza said.
Voters in the heavily-Republican district said they were confident Flores would win.
“We gotta get this back to how it used to be. It’s been blue for so long,” said Liz Devries of the district. “It’d be nice to see it go red.”
Others said they did not want to elect Gallego, who has previously represented the county as a state and U.S representative.
“We’ve had Pete Gallego and I wasn’t happy with what he did before,” Marie Rowe said.
Bexar County Elections Administrator Jacque Callanen said more than 6,000 people had voted by about 5:20 p.m., which is 2,000 votes higher than the July turnout.
Including mail and early ballots, the county has received 19,368 votes, which is a turnout rate of about 6.1 percent with an hour and a half to go.
It’s relatively low, she said, but impressive for a special election.
“They’re voting like crazy,” Callanen said….
The last Republican to hold the seat was Andrew Phelps McCormick. According to the Legislative Library of Texas, he left office in 1879.”
map from Texas Tribune
charts above from Ballotopedia
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