Polls close at 8 PM ET throughout most of Texas for tonight's Democratic and Republican primaries, the first of the cycle. The small portion of the state located in the Mountain timezone around El Paso will be voting until 9 PM ET. Our
guide to tonight's key races can be found here. Remember that if no one clears 50 percent in any given race, the top two vote getters will advance to a May 27 runoff.
We'll be liveblogging all the results starting here, but if things get jam-packed and we need more threads, head over to Daily Kos Elections to continue following the action.
Results: Statewide | By County | SoS (R) | SoS (D)
5:06 PM PT: TX-Sen: Via the Dallas County board of elections, we have our first votes. In the Republican primary, Sen. John Cornyn is off to a 73-13 lead over Rep. Steve Stockman. On the Democratic side, wealthy dentist David Alameel has a 51-28 percent lead over LaRouche crazy Kesha Rogers. Not too surprising since Alameel is from Dallas.
5:08 PM PT: TX-LG: In the Lt. Governor race, the early vote in Dallas does not bring good news for incumbent Republican David Dewhurst. State Sen. Dan Patrick is in the lead with 48, followed by Dewhurst at 24. Patrick hails from Houston.
5:12 PM PT: TX-33: The early vote in Dallas and Tarrant does bring some very good news for freshman Democratic Rep. Marc Veasey. In Dallas, Veasey's winning the early vote 66-34 over Tom Sanchez, who dug deep into his own wallet. In Veasey's native Tarrant County, the incumbent has a 80-20 lead.
5:14 PM PT:
#tx04: in Lamar Co (Paris), Hall up 49-26% over Ratcliffe after 1st 2,979 votes counted. Hall won 61% in Lamar ’12 primary, 58% in district
— @greggiroux
5:17 PM PT: TX-LG: Tarrant County's early Republican votes look a lot like Dallas County's. Patrick leads with a hefty 52, while Dewhurst is in a distant 26 percent. Everyone else is even further back.
5:19 PM PT: TX-Sen: In the Democratic primary, Tarrant's early vote in breaking for Alameel. He leads with about 50 percent, and Rogers is far back at 30.
5:22 PM PT: TX-LG: The SoS has not counted nearly as many early votes out of Dallas and Tarrant as the local election boards have, but they have some numbers throughout the rest of the state. Patrick's lead isn't as dominant, but it's clearly there. He's up on Dewhurst 46-26.
5:25 PM PT: TX-36: We're getting out first votes in the race to replace Steve Stockman is this dark red East Texas district. With a bit over 4,000 votes counted, dentist Brian Babin leads the other 11 candidates with 52 percent of the vote. It would be a major shock if anyone won this outright tonight, but it;s still very early.
5:28 PM PT: TX-04A little less than 4,000 ballots have been counted, and Rep. Ralph Hall is at 45 percent. Wealthy former US Attorney John Ratcliffe is at 29 percent, everyone else much further back.
5:29 PM PT: TX-23: With almost 9,000 votes counted, former Rep. Francisco "Quico" Canseco leads former CIA officer Will Hurd 44-40 in the GOP primary. The winner will face Pete Gallego in the state's only swing district.
5:31 PM PT: TX-Sen: Statewide, Alameel leads Rogers 52-22, with lawyer Maxey Marie Scherr a distant 13 percent. Democrats would be relieved if there wasn't a runoff with Rogers.
5:33 PM PT: TX-Sen: On the GOP side, John Cornyn looks poised to win outright tonight. He leads Stockman 64-17, albeit with less than 1 percent tallied statewide.
5:38 PM PT: TX-AG: In the state's open seat race for Attorney General, state Sen. Ken Paxton leads state Rep. Dan Branch 45-32. Railroad Commissioner Barry Smitherman is back at 23.
5:40 PM PT: TX-36: Looks like Babin has fallen below the 50 percent he'd need to avoid a runoff. Babin leads rich guy Ben Streusand 49-20, with everyone else in single digits. Still a lot to go, but those are the only two candidates to spend any real money so not a surprise if they make the runoff.
5:44 PM PT: TX-LG: Dewhurst is catching up, but still has a lot of room to make up if he wants even a plurality. With 2 percent reporting statewide, Patrick leads 42-28. The good news for Patrick is the state hasn't tallied much of Dallas, where he dominated.
5:47 PM PT: TX-32: Despite some Tea Party hopes, the Republican primary in this suburban Dallas seat never became competitive. Rep. Pete Sessions leads Sarah Palin backed- Katrina Pierson 69-31 in early votes.
5:50 PM PT: TX-32: Didn't take long: The AP has called the race for Sessions. And so the search for the next, next, next Ted Cruz begins again.
5:50 PM PT (Steve Singiser): TX-Sen: On the Democratic side, early hopes that Larouche devotee Kesha Rogers could be shut out have slipped ever so slightly, as the Dallas early vote gets diluted by more votes being cast elsewhere. Dallas-area dentist David Alameel still leads over the cutoff for a runoff, but his vote total has slid to 51.3 percent. Rogers is a distant second at 22 percent. Meanwhile, on the GOP side, Cornyn is still crushing Stockman (63-17).
5:52 PM PT: TX-LG: Close to half a million votes in, and Patrick continues to lead Dewhurst 45-27. David Dewhurst in a runoff with a more conservative candidate: What could possibly go wrong?
5:54 PM PT: TX-33: And that is that. The AP has called the Democratic primary for Rep. Marc Veasey. He currently leads 74-26 with early votes only counted. Veasey will have no problem getting reelected in this heavily Democratic district.
5:55 PM PT: TX-04: Ralph Hall remains under the magic 50 percent line with early votes and some precincts counted. Hall leads Ratcliffe 46-30, with the third place candidate at 15.
5:59 PM PT: TX-36: Babin has fallen to earth as more of the vote comes in. Babin leads Streusand 30-27, with no one else in double digits.
6:04 PM PT: TX AG: We're up to almost half a million votes counted statewide, and things look about the same here. Paxton leads Branch 43-32, but Smitherman's catching up at 25 percent. The winner will take on the awesomely named Democrat Sam Houston.
6:11 PM PT: The liveblog continues here.