Texas held its midterm primary elections on Tuesday. Two recognizable names, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and former Democrat Rep. Beto O’Rourke, are making headlines around the county after easily securing a party nomination for governor.
However, the state also voted in the primaries for two lesser-known offices: state attorney general and U.S. House for a district along the border.
For these seats, Texas voters initiated two runoff elections… and they could shake up the internal politics of both parties.
The GOP is grappling with its future as many candidates seeking to emerge from primaries, including a sizable number in Texas, tie themselves to former President Donald Trump and his controversial claims about the 2020 presidential election.
The Republicans endured a competitive primary for attorney general. Trump’s endorsement wasn’t enough to prevent incumbent Ken Paxton from being forced into a May runoff. He’ll face Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, the nephew of one president and grandson of another, after neither captured a majority of the votes cast.
While Paxton won far more votes than Bush on Tuesday, his failure to win outright could raise questions about the power of Trump’s endorsement as he seeks to reshape the party in his image in other primaries later this year.
Democrats faced challenges of their own. Nine-term U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar was trying to avoid becoming the first Democratic member of Congress to lose a primary this year. He will instead head into a runoff against Jessica Cisneros, a far-left 28-year-old immigration attorney who campaigned on Medicare for All.
Cisneros has been endorsed by progressive stalwarts Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned with her.
However, Democrats have been losing support in Cisneros’ district.
For example, Cuellar won by 19 points in 2020’s general election. On that same ticket, Biden won that same district by only four points. In other words, a socialist-backed Democrat may lose to a Republican in this newly competitive district.
Plus, Cuellar has been underperforming in this year’s primary, relative to the 2020 primary.
Cuellar also ran against Cisneros in 2020. In that election, he netted an endorsement from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, earned 51.8 percent of the primary electorate, and avoided a runoff election against Cisneros. That’s not the case this time.
This time, he’s been collecting fewer — and smaller — endorsements. Pelosi hasn’t endorsed anyone.
On the front for the governor’s race, Abbott is now in a commanding position as he seeks a third term, beginning his run with more than $50 million and campaigning on a strongly conservative agenda in America’s largest Republican state.
“Republicans sent a message,” Abbott’s campaign said in a statement. “They want to keep Texas on the extraordinary path of opportunity that we have provided over the past eight years.”
In Texas, 27 officials are elected statewide. Republicans currently occupy all 27 of those offices.
However, with 29 million people, our second-largest state includes a little bit of everything — including the Democrat Party. The state delivered almost 5.3 million votes to President Joe Biden in 2020.
With this in mind, O’Rourke is facing an uphill effort to recapture the magic of his 2018 Senate campaign, when he nearly ousted Ted Cruz.
“This group of people, and then some, are going to make me the first Democrat to be governor of the state of Texas since 1994,” O’Rourke told supporters in Fort Worth, where in 2018 he flipped Texas’ largest red county. “This is on us. This is on all of us.”
The state is still counting votes, but O’Rourke is on track to win almost 90 percent of the primary electorate, according to data obtained by The New York Times. Meanwhile, Abbott is on track to win only about 67 percent of the primary vote, amid some well-funded primary challenges from two other Republicans.
Outside the governor’s race, the primary season could be lengthy and bruising for both parties… and nothing is certain.
The Horn News and The Associated Press contributed to this article.