Polls are closed the state of Texas, where voters are casting ballots in the Democratic and Republican primaries. Our guide to tonight's key races can be found
here. Remember that if no one clears 50% in any given race, the top two vote-getters will advance to a July 31 runoff.
Results: Statewide | By County | SoS
7:07 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Up to about 12 percent reporting statewide, and David Dewhurst is no nearer to closing the deal in the GOP Senate primary. He is right at 47 percent, with Ted Cruz lingering behind at 30 percent.
On the Democratic side, a runoff appears certain, and former legislator Paul Sadler's participation in it seems likely, at this point. He leads with 35 percent. Grady Yarbrough is at 26 percent, and Addie Dainell Allen is at 23 percent. Sean Hubbard brings up the rear with 15 percent.
7:09 PM PT (Steve Singiser): AP has made another pair of House calls—Kenny Marchant has held onto his seat in TX-24, defeating former TV reporter Grant Stinchfield (the current margin is 69-31). Also, in TX-04, octogenarian Ralph Hall has held onto his seat, taking just under 60 percent of the vote against a pair of challengers.
7:16 PM PT (Steve Singiser): FYI, at the top of the ballot, both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have won their primaries, according to AP. Romney has 71 percent of the vote. Obama has 88 percent of the vote. Texas, in case you missed it, is a Southern state. Think the press will obsess over this primary tonight, like they did last week?
Yeah, me neither.
7:18 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Another call for the AP of a House primary—apparently longtime Democrat Lloyd Doggett is pretty happy with his new digs in TX-35, and they are happy with him, as well. Doggett has easily defeated Sylvia Romo, 69-25.
7:25 PM PT (Steve Singiser): As election day votes keep trickling in, a couple of observations can be made. The walk-up vote makes it look like a Senate runoff is in our futures: Dewhurst has only nabbed 44.9 percent of the vote today, as opposed to Cruz, who is up to 36.6 percent of today's vote. It also may edge Ciro Rodriguez into a runoff in TX-23. Rodriguez had 52.2 percent of the early vote, but is now down to 51.1 percent of the vote with only about a third of precincts in.
7:27 PM PT (Steve Singiser): It's early, but two GOP primaries seem certain to go to a runoff after tonight. The open seat primaries in TX-14 and TX-36 both feature huge fields, and no one candidate north of 30 percent. That could be good news in TX-14, where former Democratic Rep. Nick Lampson already cruised to victory, and can hoard resources while the GOP still sorts through its vast field of contenders.
7:30 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Another crowded GOP primary that fits the "sure to hit a runoff" bill is TX-25, where the big story might be the fact that African-American GOPer and former state railroad commissioner Michael Williams is getting hammered thus far. He is currently running in sixth place with just 9 percent of the vote.
7:36 PM PT (Steve Singiser): And AP ends the drama: they say that David Dewhurst will be in a runoff for the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate. They haven't called Ted Cruz for the other half of that runoff...yet. That's a foregone conclusion, at this point.
7:40 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Now AP recognizes said foregone conclusion: it is Dewhurst and Cruz in the runoff.
7:51 PM PT: In TX-34 (D), Filemon Vela still has a huge lead with 42%, and there's still a five-car pileup for 2nd through 6th place. But almost half the vote's been counted and Ramiro Garza remains in 2nd. However, he's only 100 votes ahead of Denise Blanchard.
7:52 PM PT: It seems almost certain that TX-33 (D) will go to a run-off between Marc Veasey and Domingo Garcia.
7:55 PM PT: TX-30 (D): What a disappointing showing for young attorney Taj Clayton. He's in third place with just 11%, and more than half is counted. (The race was called for Rep. E.B. Johnson very early.) I'm surprised he's performed so poorly—he definitely seemed like the kind of "guy with a future even if he loses," but this is a rocky way to start your political career.
7:56 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Wow.
8:01 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Worth noting: officially, El Paso County only has a little over a quarter of precincts reporting. They do have Beto O'Rourke leading just outside the runoff threshold (51-44).
8:01 PM PT (Steve Singiser): It is also worth noting that the AP has NOT called TX-16 yet.
8:04 PM PT: More than half the vote is counted in TX-14 (R), and Randy Weber has a decent lead with 28% vs. 19% for Felicia Harris. Michael Truncale is at 15 and Jay Old at 13. A runoff is a virtual certainty.
8:05 PM PT (James L): I'm starting to get a bit concerned that Pete Gallego won't have the votes necessary to force a runoff in TX-23. Rodriguez is still sitting at 51% of the vote with 172 precincts reporting (and 46 precincts left in his vote-rich Bexar base). If you'd like to follow along in the county-by-county results link, these are the counties that Gallego represents in the House: Uvalde, Edwards, Val Verde, Terrell, Pecos, Brewster, Presidio, Jeff Davis, Ward, Reeves, Loving, Culberson, and Hudspeth. A few of those counties really haven't turned out many voters tonight. Yikes.
8:12 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Way to go, local TV! KTSM appears to be retracting their "projection" of Beto O'Rourke winning the Democratic primary in TX-16. Now they merely say he's "leading", which was already pretty well established by the results. Sigh...
8:15 PM PT: We're doing some crunching ourselves, but this is a bit of a relief:
More than 2/3rds of the outstanding precincts in TX-23 are in Gallego's legislative district...will almost definitely pull Ciro under 50%
— @ppppolls via web
8:23 PM PT (jeffmd): In a follow-on to PPP's tweet: TX-23 will almost undoubtedly go to a runoff: Gallego's HD-74 is only 29% reporting, and Pete is romping 62-31. The rest of the district is 89% reporting, and Ciro is pulling 56 to Gallego's 29.
8:30 PM PT (Steve Singiser): Wow...apparently the Democrats in TX-22 don't learn. Two years after LaRouche devotee Kesha Rogers won the Democratic primary, only to get boat-raced by Republican Pete Olson, Rogers has now edged ahead of fellow Democrat KP George...by 22 votes!
8:34 PM PT (Steve Singiser): In the Democratic vote sink in D/FW (TX-33), the AP is inexplicably holding off on announcing the runoff. For the whole night, it has been Marc Veasey and Domingo Garcia lapping the field. Now, with nearly 90 percent of precincts in, Veasey is at 36 percent and Garcia at 25 percent. No one is within single digits of Garcia, making a Veasey-Garcia runoff a near-certainty.
8:38 PM PT (Steve Singiser): A big update out of El Paso County, where we now have about 70 percent of precincts reporting. Beto O'Rourke still leads incumbent Silvestre Reyes, but barely above the 50 percent threshold. At present, O'Rourke leads with 50.29 percent of the vote.
8:42 PM PT (Steve Singiser): The AP now confirms the July 31st roster for the U.S. Senate runoffs. About an hour after calling the GOP primary as a runoff between David Dewhurst and Ted Cruz, the AP now projects that former state legislator Paul Sadler and psychologist Grady Yarbrough will advance to the July runoff. Sadler leads Yarbrough in round one by ten points (36-26).
9:00 PM PT (James L): Let's move the discussion over here.