Updated 10:25 p.m.
With all precincts reporting, a special election Tuesday to fill Carlos Uresti’s seat for Senate District 19 ended with no candidate receiving more than 50 percent of the votes.
Republican Pete Flores and Democrat Pete Gallego are now headed to a runoff.
SD19 Candidate Pete Flores received 34 percent of the vote tonight putting him in a runoff against Democrat Pete Gallego who had 29 percent. Flores says he received a call from Governor @GregAbbott_TX. @TPRNews #TXDecides pic.twitter.com/NpANxVgIgl
— Joey Palacios 😷 (@Joeycules) August 1, 2018
Flores received 34 percent of the vote; Gallego 29 percent; and Roland Gutierrez, 24 percent. The remaining four candidates were in single digits.
Democrat Pete Gallego will enter a runoff with Republican Pete Flores for the special election to fill the State Senate District 19 seat. Here Gallego - who had ~29 percent of the vote - says this is the runoff pating he anticipated and he is ready to fight. @TPRNews #TXDecides pic.twitter.com/ER9U1Jfbvs
— Joey Palacios 😷 (@Joeycules) August 1, 2018
Election Results
Original article
A special election for a seat in the Texas Senate is Tuesday.
Eight candidates are vying to replace San Antonio Democrat Carlos Uresti, who resigned last month after being convicted of 11 felonies, in state Senate District 19.
MAP | Texas Senate District 19
The Democratic-leaning district, which includes parts of Bexar County and covers more than 400 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, is facing challenges from top Texas Republicans, including Pete Flores, who ran against and lost to Uresti in 2016 but earned 40 percent of the vote.
Gov. Greg Abbott endorsed the retired game warden Sunday.
On the Democratic side, the two highest profile candidates are state Rep. Roland Gutierrez and former Congressman Pete Gallego. The two other Democrats are attorney Charlie Urbina Jones, and Carlos Uresti's brother, outgoing state Rep. Tomas Uresti, D-San Antonio.
VIEW | Sample ballot
The winner of the special election will finish Uresti's term, which ends January 2021.
Bexar County Elections administrator Jacque Callanen said all candidates are appearing on the same ballot regardless of party.
“You may see two Democrats here and you get two Republicans and then two Democrats and so that takes the voter just a second to sort of orientate themselves ‘now I’m going to find, you know, by name which person I want,’ ” she said.
Voters can use to find out if they’re registered and their polling location options on the Bexar County election page.
MORE | Voter turnout duing early voting
TPR's Joey Palacios contributed to this report
Vince Kong can be reached at vkong@tpr.org or on Twitter @teamvincek
