We have to start with this:
The Texas Supreme Court suspended a district court’s decision Tuesday to extend voting by two hours in Dallas County and ordered that any votes cast by people who got in line after 7 p.m. be separated.
Voting was extended until 9 p.m. in Dallas County after the Dallas County Democratic Party asked for an extension on Tuesday due to confusion over precinct-specific voting locations and issues with the county’s elections website.
Kardal Coleman, Dallas County Democratic Party Chair, filed an emergency petition Tuesday, saying voter confusion was so severe that the county election department’s website crashed. Coleman asked that polls be kept open until 9 p.m. to allow voters time to get to their assigned precinct location.
After the district court judge’s decision, voters were allowed to get in line until 9 p.m., but those who got in line after 7 p.m. were going to be casting provisional ballots, according to former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.
The Texas Supreme Court issued a statement Tuesday night saying voting should occur only as permitted by the Texas Election Code and that votes cast by voters who were not in line at 7 p.m. should be separated.
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s camp issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying Dallas County Republicans and the Williamson County GOP implemented precinct-specific voting locations on Election Day that were an “effort to suppress the vote” and that state law forced Democrats to “follow suit against our will.”
“This effort to suppress the vote, to confuse and inconvenience voters, is having its intended effect as people are being turned away from the polls,” Crockett said. “We are monitoring the situation and working with our local county party to explore all solutions, including an extension of election day voting hours.”
During a news conference Tuesday afternoon, Crockett said there were issues with the Dallas County Elections website staying online and providing accurate data, which made it difficult for voters to verify their precinct location.
Texas Rep. James Talarico, who is running in the primary race against Crockett, issued a statement saying he was “deeply concerned about the reports of voters being turned away from the polls” and also called for an extension of voting hours.
Crockett said voters in the counties are accustomed to countywide voting, which allows them to cast ballots at any voting location in the county during early voting and on Election Day, not just at their assigned precinct.
[…]
Kendall Scudder, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party, said Republicans in Dallas and Williamson counties refused to agree to a joint primary, which he said led to confusion and voters showing up at the wrong voting locations on Election Day.
“Let’s be clear about what happened here. Both counties have spent a million dollars trying to get the word out about this change — a million dollars of taxpayer money that didn’t need to be spent. Democrats pushed for a joint election,” Scudder said. “As it has been for eight years, it would have been cheaper, simpler, and more accessible for every voter in the county. Republicans said no.”
This is of course related to the stupid hand-counting scheme that the Dallas County Republicans are embarking on. It’s dumb dumbness all the way down. Most likely, the total number of votes cast in the extended period will be fairly small, and most of them will probably get cured, so the net effect of the SCOTx ruling will probably be minimal. Note all of the qualifiers in that sentence, and note that all of this could have been avoided. Voting in El Paso was also extended by an hour due to some technical difficulties.
On to the results. The Trib has an excellent statewide ballot tracker, which I will use to sum things up:
– As of about 10:30 PM, James Talarico led Jasmine Crockett 52-47, a margin of about 70K votes. At the time of this writing, only early results were in from Dallas (where Crockett led 61-38) and Harris (where she led 53.5-45.5). I’ll update this in the morning, but this is too close to call. (Update: Talarico has been declared the winner, though it doesn’t appear that Crockett has conceded yet. Talarico was up by about 160K votes, with more still to be counted.)
– On the Republican side, John Cornyn had a slight lead on Ken Paxton, but with Wesley Hunt and a bunch of no-names collecting almost 17% of the vote, those two are headed for a runoff. Good, let them beat each other up and set a bunch of money on fire for three more months. I’m actually impressed Cornyn was leading Paxton in early votes, but that could change by morning.
– Gina Hinojosa and Sarah Eckhardt (Comptroller) were cruising to easy wins. Vikki Goodwin and Nathan Johnson were right around 49% in their races for Lite Guv and AG, so maybe they’re in a runoff and maybe they squeak by. Benjamin Flores was up 55-45 for Land Commissioner. Maggie Ellis and Kristen Hawkins won their primaries for State Supreme Court. (Update: Flores won, Goodwin and Johnson are in runoffs with Marcos Vélez and Joe Jaworski, respectively.)
– Don Huffines is a turd, but him wiping the floor with Greg Abbott’s hand-picked Comptroller Kelly Hancock is grimly funny. All that and Taylor Rehmet is now the Senator in SD09. Someone give Abbott one of those Magic Erasers to get the “L” off of his forehead. Sid Miller may have finally worn out his welcome as Ag Commissioner, but he was only trailing by seven points as I write this, so he’s not fully dead yet. Mayes Middleton and Chip Roy will fight it out for AG in May.
– I could save this for the Harris County results, but Steve Toth, who is also a turd, is kicking Dan Crenshaw’s behind in CD02. Remember when Crenshaw became a national name who got to go be chummy on “Saturday Night Live” because Pete Davidson made a dumb joke about his eye? Those were the days. Everyone, get to know Shaun Finnie. Dan, you know you don’t have to be gracious about this, especially not after Ted Cruz stabbed you in the back, right? Just think about it, that’s all I’m saying.
– Bobby Pulido easily won in CD15, while Colin Allred and Julie Johnson will go to overtime in CD33.
– The other Congressional race of interest is of course in CD23, where scandal-ridden Rep. Tony Gonzales had a slight lead over gun nut Brandon Herrera. The two will face off in May; Gonzales barely beat Herrera in a primary runoff in 2024. Katy Padilla Stout was on track to face the winner.
– One local result of interest, former San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg easily won the Dem primary for Bexar County Judge, ousting incumbent Peter Sakai. I expect he’ll win easily in November as well. Nirenberg briefly flirted with running for Governor. Maybe another cycle.
– And finally, a result from outside Texas of interest:
Democrat Alex Holladay won a Republican-held seat in the Arkansas state House on Tuesday night, marking the ninth time Democrats have flipped a district from red to blue in a special election since the start of Donald Trump’s second term.
Holladay, a healthcare administrator, defeated businessman Bo Renshaw to capture the 70th District outside of Little Rock, a swingy constituency he had come close to winning in 2024.
In that race, state Rep. Carlton Wing held off Holladay by a slender 51-49 margin, just the latest in a series of difficult elections for the incumbent. With the possibility of another tough battle looming, Wing accepted an appointment to become head of Arkansas PBS last September, triggering a race to replace him.
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, however, wasn’t eager to hold a special election and originally scheduled it for June 9—more than eight months after Wing’s departure, and, notably, after the legislature’s annual session is set to conclude.
But Arkansas Democrats sued, saying that Sanders’ long delay violated state law. A judge agreed and ordered the election be moved up to March 3, the same day as the state’s regularly scheduled primary.
If Sanders was worried about the GOP’s chances of holding Wing’s seat, she was right to be. The 70th District was the rare constituency that moved to the left in 2024.
Trump carried it 51-47 in 2020, according to data uploaded to Dave’s Redistricting App by the Voting and Election Science Team, but calculations from The Downballot show that Kamala Harris won it 50-48 four years later.
Alex Holladay becomes the second Dem to flip a Republican-held legislative seat in 2026, following Taylor Rehmet. Congratulations to him.
UPDATE: Jasmine Crockett has conceded in the Senate race. I’m glad we have that wrapped up, and I wish her all the best with whatever comes next.