Texans voted yesterday in three runoff elections to fill terms in the Texas House. Because these elections filled vacancies left when previous officeholders retired, winning candidates must still run again in the March 3, 2020 Primary and the November 3rd, 2020 General Election. With all polling locations reporting, here are last night’s results:
Gary Gates (R) Wins in HD-28: The most closely-watched runoff election was held in the Houston-area district vacated by Republican John Zerwas, who won re-election in 2016 by 8 percentage points, giving Democrats hope to flip the district. Republican Gary Gates, who founded property management company APTDF, Ltd., won with 58% of the vote (17,457 votes); Democrat Eliz Markowitz finished with 41.9% (12,67 votes). Markowitz indicated that she intends to challenge Gates for the seat again in November, saying to supporters that that “every single thing we have done over the past six months will come to fruition in November 2020.”
Lorraine Birabil (D) Wins in HD-100: Democrat Lorraine Birabil won the runoff election for HD-100, the seat vacated by former Democratic Representative and now-Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. Birabil, a lawyer and longtime community activist, won 66.2% of the vote (1,643 votes); Democrat James Armstrong finished the race with 33.7% (836 votes).
Anna Eastman (D) Wins in HD-148: Democrat Anna Eastman, a former member of the Houston ISD Board, won the runoff election for Houston-Area HD-148 with 65% of the vote (4,527 votes). The seat was vacated in 2019 by former Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston). Republican Luis La Rotta, a small business owner and Navy veteran, won 34% (2,388 votes).
For more information on Texas elections, visit https://results.texas-election.com/landing-page