By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Former President – now once again President-elect – Donald J. Trump won an easy victory in Val Verde County in the Nov. 5 General Election, but local voters mostly liked incumbents for seats at the federal, state and local level.
Nearly 50 percent of the county’s 30,116 registered voters cast ballots in the General Election, according to a summary results report presented to Val Verde County Commissioners Court by County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy, who administered the election locally.
Chapoy’s report indicates a total of 14,694 county residents voted in the election, with 10,400 voting early, 1,000 casting absentee ballots and 3,294 making their way to the polls on Election Day. That number translates 48.79 percent of the county’s registered voters.
A total of 14,612 county voters cast ballots for the office of president/vice president.
Of that total, 9,162 – 62.7 percent – voted for the Republican Party ticket of Donald J. Trump and JD Vance, while 5,282 – 36.1 percent – cast their ballots for the Democratic Party ticket of Kamala D. Harris and Tim Walz.
Of the remaining ballots, 73 went to the Libertarian Party ticket of Chase Oliver and Mike ter Maat, and 61 went to the Green Party nominees Jill Stein and Rudolph Ware.
There were also 24 ballots with write-in candidates not certified; one write-in vote for Shiva Ayyadurai and Crystal Ellis and three write-in ballots for each of the following tickets: Claudia De La Cruz and Karina Garcia, Peter Sonski and Lauren Onak and Cornel West and Melina Abdullah.
Eighty-one county voters undervoted the presidential race, meaning they did not cast a ballot in the contest.
Incumbent U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, the Republican Party nominee, also handily won Val Verde County, receiving a total of 8,071 votes, while his challenger, Democratic Party nominee Colin Allred, received a total of 5,782 votes.
Val Verde County also supported incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales of San Antonio, who received a total of 8,929 votes, while his challenger, Democrat Santos Limon, who was born and raised in Del Rio, received a total of 4,899 votes. Gonzales also won the overall race and will return to Washington to represent District 23 in Congress for a third term.
In the race for Texas Representative, District 74, Val Verde County residents cast a total of 7,704 votes for hometown candidate and former Del Rio Mayor Robert Garza and a total of 6,114 votes for the incumbent, Democrat Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass. Morales won the race overall and will return to Austin to represent the area.
Two Del Rioans who represent three counties including Val Verde County were unopposed in their re-election bids.
Republican Roland Andrade garnered a total of 10,592 votes from Val Verde County and will return to the bench as judge for the 63rd Judicial District, which includes Val Verde County, Kinney County and Terrell County.
Also returning to represent the 63rd Judicial District as district attorney will be Republican Suzanne West, who received a total of 10,427 votes in Val Verde County.
The county’s four constables were all unopposed in the General Election.
Votes totals for those races were as follows: Constable Pct. 1, Democrat Dionicio “Nicho” Treviño III had a total of 2,112 votes; Constable Pct. 2, Democrat Daniel Reyes Jr. had a total of 1,866 votes; Constable Pct. 3, Republican Michael Wancho had a total of 4,089 votes; and Constable Pct. 4, Democrat Gerardo “Jerry” Hernandez had a total of 2,227 votes.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
