Texas State Senate Race Goes Republican...

...for the first time in 139 years (1879)

Flores defeats Gallego in Senate District 19
By Dylan McGuinness Updated 10:27 pm CDT, Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Voters elected political newcomer Pete Flores to the Texas Senate on Tuesday, flipping a Democratic district red for the first time in 139 years and bolstering Republicans’ supermajority in the chamber ahead of the November elections.

A retired game warden, Flores defeated former state and U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego for the Senate District 19 seat after receiving backing from some of the state’s most prominent politicians, including Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, and U.S. Sens John Cornyn and Ted Cruz.

“We conservatives are conservative in the way we make approaches. The gunfight’s not over until the last shot’s fired,” Flores told the Express-News after Gallego conceded in a phone call just before 9 p.m. “The last shot’s been fired.”

According the Secretary of State’s website, Flores won with 53 percent of the vote to Gallego’s 47 percent with 44,487 ballots cast.

Flores and Gallego competed in Tuesday’s runoff after emerging from an eight-candidate field in first- and second-place, respectively, in July’s special election to replace former Sen. Carlos Uresti. The longtime lawmaker vacated his seat in June after being convicted of 11 felony charges.

https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/l...e-at-7-p-m-in-Senate-District-19-13239398.php

This was a district where Hillary won by 12 points.

Is this a harbinger of things to come in November?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Senate,_District_19

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Flores

https://www.texastribune.org/2018/09/19/how-pete-flores-upset-democrat-win-texas-state-senate-seat/



https://www.washingtonpost.com/poli...a8d1596/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.c35507696dbc

Democrats, who have been sounding alarms all year about the difficulty of turning out Latino voters, felt their stomachs sink — especially because their candidate seemed to take the election for granted, failing to call in reinforcements.

“Despite having previously been a Latino Victory Fund-endorsed candidate, he did not request our support for this race,” said Jorge Silva, a spokesman for the LVF, which has poured millions of dollars into Latino turnout elsewhere. “I'd caution people not read too much into this single outcome as it does not reflect what is happening across the state or the country.”

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Might be a bit of a wake-up call for the Democrats.