Super Tuesday went into Wednesday morning with several polling locations in Williamson County still counting votes.
With 122 polling locations reporting total participation by 45,346 of the 427,576 registered voters in Williamson County, a number of Tuesday, March 5, primary races appeared to be a toss-up, setting the stage for runoff elections May 28.
On the Republican side, incumbent Pete Sessions received the majority of votes for U.S. representative District 17. Sessions won in a landslide with 79% of the vote over his opponent Joseph T. Lagrone.
Sessions in the Nov. 5 general election will face Democrat Mark Lorenzen.
For state representative District 20, Terry Wilson of the GOP emerged as the victor with 61% of the votes over opponent Elva Janine Chapa.
Democrat Stephen Wyman challenges Wilson on the November ballot.
The Williamson County GOP chair is Michelle Evans after she received 69% of the votes.
For Democrats, the U.S. House District 31 race narrowly missed a runoff election after Stuart Whitlow secured the vote in Williamson County with 53% of the votes.
Taylor resident Rick Von Pfeil and Brian Walbridge claimed 24% and 23% of the votes, respectively. Once all the votes from the five counties in District 31 are tabulated, a runoff is expected between Whitlow and Walbridge. The winner will vie for the seat against incumbent John Carter in November.
The race for state representative District 52 had a tight race between Jennie Birkholz and Angel Carroll. Birkholz received 51% of the votes, while Carroll received 49% of the votes. Birkholz will face Republican representative Caroline Harris Davila in November.
For the 3rd Court of Appeals District Place 5, Karin Crump was voted in with 65% of the votes. Thomas J. Baker, her opponent, received 35% of the votes.
A Republican candidate did not file, and Crump will run unopposed in November.
In Precinct 4, the Democratic candidate for constable in November will be Kenneth Guerrero, who defeated Perry Travis. Guerrero had 59% of the vote to Travis’ 41%.
Current Precinct 4 Constable Paul Leal will face Guerrero in November.
On the national level, former president Donald Trump won the Republican primary in Williamson County, and President Joe Biden took the Democratic vote.
Republican Ted Cruz, the incumbent, received more than 80% of the votes for his U.S. Senate seat, but he’ll face Democrat Colin Allred, who received 69% of the vote in his primary, in November.
A runoff will likely be held for the Republican State Board of Education District 10 between Tom Maynard, who had 49% of the vote, and Mary Bone, who had 41% of the vote. For the Democratic candidate, Theresa Boisseau was the clear winner over Keith McPhail with 74% of the vote.
The winners of the runoff will go against each other in November.
Look for a more detailed recap of election results in the Sunday, March 10, edition of the Taylor Press.
Early voting
Early voting totals showed that only 10% of the county completed a ballot before Tuesday’s primary.
Early voting was Feb. 20 through March 1.
Of the 426,549 registered voters, 44,640 made their way to the polls, according to election officials.
In Taylor, 1,596 voters cast ballots during early voting. Republicans favored the local polls with 1,191 votes to 405 Democratic voters. Throughout the early voting period, Taylor saw a rise the first few days and a large dip Feb. 26, with only 21 votes cast. The pace picked up and continued with a slight increase over the next few days. The busiest day in Taylor was the last day of early voting with 335 votes cast.
The Williamson County Annex in Hutto had a consistent flow of voters during early voting, with an average of 90 votes a day cast, totaling 1,805 ballots. More Republican voters visited the polls with 1,233, while 572 Democrats voted.
The Georgetown Independent School District Tech Building was the most popular polling location during early voting. A total of 3,525 voters cast ballots, 621 for Democrats and 2,904 for Republicans.
