Texas Governor pushes runoff elections to July 14

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an announcement postponing the Texas primary election runoffs until Tuesday, July 14, 2020.

The proclamation comes with his previous statewide disaster declaration and confirms early voting will begin Monday, July 6. The runoff elections were originally scheduled for Tuesday, May 26.

Stephens County was set to feature a battle for the Precinct 1 County Commissioner seat, between David Fambro and Chad Ezell.

“The main thing is to keep the constitutional process and not lose our rights to vote,” Ezell said. “I hate to see our constitutional process interrupted like this, but, if we get back to normal and put newly elected officials in, it will keep us normal in our society.”

The cause of the runoff election was due to David Fambro receiving 30.11% of the Precinct 1 votes and Chad Ezell receiving 19.52% of the votes.

“It was the proactive thing to do, pushing back the voting dates,” Fambro said. “It gives those who are affected by the virus the opportunity to be able to participate when the time comes. I’m still looking forward to the election and hopefully, everyone makes it through this well.”

Two Republican candidates for the Texas House District 60 seat will also be on the ballot for the July runoff elections.

Jon Francis and Glenn Rogers will battle for the District 60 seat, which includes Browns, Callahan, Coleman, Eastland, Hood, Palo Pinto, Shackelford and Stephens counties.

In Stephens County, Glenn Rogers accounted for 53.26% and Jon Francis accounted for 41.45% of the county’s vote. The vote counts were equally contested statewide, Francis received 45.9% and Rogers received nearly 43.8% of the statewide vote.

With no Democratic candidate running for the November election, the winner in the runoff election will represent those counties in the Texas House of Representatives.

For U.S. Senator, the Democratic candidate in the November election is also heading into the July runoff elections.

Mary “MJ” Hegar will face Royce West in July. In the previous March primaries, Hegar received 20.47% of the total Stephens County vote, while West received 7.09%.

Hegar finished in the March Primaries with 22.31% of the statewide votes, with West finishing with nearly 14.66%.

The winner of this runoff will be facing incumbent John Cornyn (R), Cedric Jefferson (People Over Politics Party), James Brumley (The Human Rights Party), Tim Smith (Independent), Arjun Srinivasan (Independent) and Ricardo Turullols-Bonilla (Independent).