Jose Gonzalez-Campelo/TheCougar
Texans went to the polls to cast votes for the 2024 primaries on Super Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the Harris County Clerk’s office reported results from all 545 of the voting centers. The results are as follows for the primary.
Presidential primaries
The presidential primaries went smoothly for President Joe Biden and Former President Donald Trump, as they both won their respective parties’ primaries, according to the Associated Press.
Biden, who is running for re-election, won 86.4% of the votes and gained 202 delegates. Trump won 77.9% of the vote and gained 141 delegates. Both candidates move closer to gaining their party’s nomination for the general election in November.
To win the Democratic nomination, Biden needs 1,968 delegate votes and to win the Republican nomination, Trump needs 1,215. Primaries are a means of choosing delegates from each state, who will then go to the party conventions in the summer and formally nominate their chosen candidates for President, said political science assistant professor J. Bryan Cole.
“Typically, delegates are party activists and sometimes elected officials for state and local offices. A combination of applicable state laws and political party bylaws determine the allocation of delegates,” Cole said.
Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley announced Wednesday that she will be suspending her presidential campaign, setting up the likely re-match between Biden and Trump in November. She won Vermont’s primary on Tuesday and won 17.4% of the votes in Texas.
U.S. Senate
Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred won the Democratic primary for the Senate setting up an underdog campaign to unseat Sen. Ted Cruz, who is running for his third term as a U.S. Senator.
Allred, a former NFL player, flipped his district in 2019, to win the U.S. House seat. He defeated his Democratic challenger, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who only won 17.9% of the vote.
No Democrat has won a statewide election in 30 years in Texas. In 2018, Cruz almost lost the senate seat to former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, winning by only 3 points.
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee won the Democratic primary with 59.94% of the vote for House District 18. She defeated Amanda Edwards, who trailed behind with 37.38% of the vote, for the congressional office she has held for 30 years.
Jackson Lee will go on to face Republican Lana Centonze, who won her party’s primary by 53.25% of the votes.
U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia ran uncontested and won the democratic primary for her House seat in District 29, with 100% of the votes. Republican candidates Christian Garcia and Alan Garza both failed to get 50% of the votes needed to win and will face each other in the run-offs in May.
House District 36 incumbent Brain Babin won the Republican primary with 78.13% of the vote. He will face Democratic challenger Dayna Steele who won 100% of the democratic vote.
U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw won 60% of the votes for House District 2 and will face Democratic challenger Peter Filler, who won 100% of the votes.
Harris County District Attorney
Former Prosecutor Sean Teare won the Democratic nomination in a landslide, upsetting current District Attorney Kim Ogg, who is a two-term incumbent. He will face Republican candidate, Houston attorney Dan Simons who ran uncontested, in November’s general election.
Ogg gained a lot of criticism from local Democrats for failing to fulfill criminal justice reform promises, her alleged connections to Texas Republicans and increasing resignations in her office. Teare was a prosecutor in Ogg’s office until last year.
In her two terms in office, she investigated members of her party and publicly engaged in fights with Harris County Judge Lina Hildago, who endorsed Teare.
“Thank you, Harris County. We are going to rebuild the Harris County DA’s office and create a working criminal justice system that works for everyone,” Teare said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
