By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
Less than a quarter of the Val Verde County registered voters who cast ballots in the March 3 primary elections returned to vote in Tuesday’s primary election runoff, numbers released by the Val Verde County Clerk’s Office show.
County Clerk Teresa Esther Chapoy released the results of the primary runoff election just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, about an hour and a half after the polls had closed at 7 p.m.
According to Chapoy’s numbers, a total of 1,520 persons voted in the primary runoff through early voting by personal appearance and mail or in person on Tuesday. That number is just under 25 percent of the total 6,190 registered voters who cast ballots in the Democratic Party and Republican Party primary elections in March.
The 1,520 persons who voted in the primary runoff election represent 4.95 percent of Val Verde County’s 30,721 registered voters.
There were five Republican Party races and three Democratic Party races on the primary runoff ballots.
The only race featuring candidates who live in Val Verde County was on the Democratic Party side, a race for a Democratic Party precinct chair position between Gustavo “Gus” Alcala and Ramiro Guzman. Alcala won the race with 54 votes to Guzman’s 45.
The most-watched race on the Republican Party side of the ballot was that for the Republican Party nomination for U.S. senator, and in this race, Val Verde County Republicans marched in lockstep with their statewide counterparts.
Statewide, the race between incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, whom Texans first sent to Washington in 2002, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who garnered an eleventh-hour endorsement from President Donald Trump, ended with 63.8 percent of Republicans casting ballots for Paxton.
In Val Verde County, 63.6 percent of the Republicans who cast ballots in the primary runoff voted for Paxton. According to results released by Chapoy on Tuesday, an unofficial total of 691 voters cast their ballots for Paxton, and an unofficial total of 347 voters cast their ballots for Cornyn.
Paxton will now face Democratic Party nominee James Talarico of Austin in the November General Election.
In other statewide runoffs, Val Verde County Republican voters picked Mayes Middleton over Chip Roy as their choice for the party’s nominee for Texas attorney general. County Republicans gave Middleton an unofficial total of 590 votes, with Roy getting an unofficial total of 443 votes.
Statewide, Republicans picked Middleton as their nominee, and he will face the winner of the Democratic Party runoff for the seat in November.
Val Verde County Republicans couldn’t pick a winner as the party’s nominee for Texas railroad commissioner, giving Jim Wright, the incumbent, an unofficial total of 502 votes and his opponent, Bo French, the same unofficial total of 502 votes. Statewide, the race was still too close to call, with French garnering just over 50 percent of the votes cast, with 98.9 percent of the total ballots counted.
The county’s Republican voters also liked Thomas Smith as their nominee for Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 3, giving him an unofficial total of 526 votes. Smith’s opponent, Alison Fox, had an unofficial total of 416 votes from Val Verde County voters.
In the race for Republican Party nominee for State Senator, District 19, Republican voters in Val Verde County gave Marcus Cardenas an unofficial total of 468 votes, four more votes than his opponent, Robert Marks Jr. Marks got an unofficial total of 464 votes in Val Verde County.
Cardenas won the election district-wide and will now face the incumbent and Democratic Party nominee, Roland Gutierrez, in November.
On the Democratic Party side of the ballot, Val Verde County Democrats picked Marcos Isaias Velez as their nominee for Texas lieutenant governor, giving Velez an unofficial total of 285 votes. Local Democrats gave his opponent, Vikki Goodwin, an unofficial total of 173 votes.
Statewide, Goodwin won the Democratic Party nomination in a landslide and will go on to face incumbent and Republican Party nominee Dan Patrick in the November General Election.
Val Verde County Democrats also picked Nathan Johnson as their choice for Democratic Party nominee for Texas attorney general. They gave Johnson an unofficial total of 226 votes, just two more than the unofficial total of 224 votes cast for his opponent, Joe Jaworski.
Statewide, Johnson won the Democratic Party nomination, and he will face Middleton, the Republican Party nominee, in November.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com
