Texas' 27th Congressional District special election, 2018
- General election: Nov. 6
- Voter registration deadline: Oct. 9
- Early voting: Oct. 22 - Nov. 2
- Absentee voting deadline: Nov. 7
- Online registration: No
- Same-day registration: No
- Voter ID: Photo ID required
- Poll times: 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
2018 →
← 2016
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| Texas' 27th Congressional District special |
|---|
 |
| General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: April 27, 2018 |
| General: June 30, 2018 Pre-election incumbent: Vacant |
| How to vote |
| Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Voting in Texas |
| Race ratings |
Inside Elections: Solid Republican Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Republican |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2018 |
| See also |
Texas elections, 2018 U.S. Congress elections, 2018 U.S. Senate elections, 2018 U.S. House elections, 2018 |
Michael Cloud (R) won the June 30 special election to replace Blake Farenthold (R) in Texas' 27th Congressional District for the rest of 2018.
Farenthold resigned from office on April 6, 2018, amid sexual misconduct allegations.[1] The winner of the special election served in Congress until Farenthold's term expired on January 1, 2019.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) called an emergency special election after Farenthold resigned. He said that the emergency election was necessary so that the district, which was impacted by Hurricane Harvey in August 2017, would have representation for the remainder of 2018.[2]
The special election occurred alongside a regularly scheduled election to fill the seat for the 2019-2020 congressional term. The top Democratic and Republican candidates in the regularly scheduled election also filed to run in the special election.
On May 22, Cloud won the regularly scheduled Republican primary runoff. Shortly afterward, his main Republican opponent, Bech Bruun, endorsed him and said he would not campaign in the special election.[3][4]
Eric Holguin beat Raul (Roy) Barrera in the regularly scheduled Democratic primary runoff. According to the Texas Tribune, Barrera quit campaigning after the May 22 primary runoff.[5]
According to Houston Public Media, this special election did not generate the same amount of attention as the U.S. House special elections in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona due to the short amount of time the winner would serve in office if elected, the district's strong Republican lean, and other competitive races in Texas, including challenges to Republican incumbents John Culberson, Pete Sessions, and Will Hurd.[6]
If no candidate had won more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff election would have been held in September between the top-two vote getters, regardless of party.[7][8]
| Candidate Filing Deadline | Primary Election | General Election |
|---|---|---|
Texas' 27th Congressional District is located in the southern portion of the state. The district includes Aransas, Calhoun, Jackson, Lavaca, Matagorda, Nueces, Refugio, Victoria, and Wharton counties and some parts of Bastrop, Caldwell, Gonzales, and San Patricio counties.[9]
Candidates and election results
General election
Special general election for U.S. House Texas District 27
The following candidates ran in the special general election for U.S. House Texas District 27 on June 30, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Michael Cloud (R) | 54.8 | 19,872 | |
| Eric Holguin (D) | 32.0 | 11,599 | ||
| Raul Barrera (D) | 4.8 | 1,748 | ||
| Bech Bruun (R) | 4.3 | 1,571 | ||
| Michael J. Westergren (D) | 2.4 | 858 | ||
| Marty Perez (R) | 0.8 | 276 | ||
| Judith Cutright (Independent) | 0.5 | 172 | ||
| Daniel Tinus (L) | 0.4 | 144 | ||
| Christopher Suprun (Independent) | 0.1 | 51 | ||
| Total votes: 36,291 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Primary election results
The following are primary and primary runoff results for the regularly scheduled election.
May 22, 2018 primary runoffs
| U.S. House, Texas District 27 Democratic Primary Runoff, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Eric Holguin |
62.03% | 6,376 |
| Raul (Roy) Barrera | 37.97% | 3,903 |
| Total Votes | 10,279 | |
| Source: Politico These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||
| U.S. House, Texas District 27 Republican Primary Runoff, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Michael Cloud |
61.13% | 15,041 |
| Bech Bruun | 38.87% | 9,565 |
| Total Votes | 24,606 | |
| Source: Politico These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available. | ||
March 6, 2018 primaries
| U.S. House, Texas District 27 Democratic Primary, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Raul (Roy) Barrera |
41.22% | 8,733 |
| Eric Holguin |
23.31% | 4,939 |
| Vanessa Edwards Foster | 19.07% | 4,041 |
| Ronnie McDonald | 16.40% | 3,474 |
| Total Votes | 21,187 | |
| U.S. House, Texas District 27 Republican Primary, 2018 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
| Bech Bruun |
36.09% | 15,919 |
| Michael Cloud |
33.83% | 14,920 |
| Chris Mapp | 12.14% | 5,356 |
| Jerry Hall | 8.27% | 3,649 |
| John Grunwald | 6.86% | 3,027 |
| Eddie Gassman | 2.80% | 1,237 |
| Total Votes | 44,108 | |
| Source: Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Republican Party Primary Election, 3/6/2018," accessed May 24, 2018 | ||
Noteworthy events
Abbott requests that Farenthold pay for election
On April 25, 2018, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) sent a letter to Blake Farenthold asking him to pay for the costs of the special election. The letter said that Farenthold should pay $84,000 to the counties in his district for election because that was the amount the federal government paid to settle the sexual harassment lawsuit against him.[10] The editorial board of the Victoria Advocate said the special election would cost about $200,000.[11]
Farenthold declined to pay for the special election. In a response to Abbott, he wrote, "Since I didn’t call it and I don’t think it’s necessary, I shouldn’t be asked to pay for it."
A spokeswoman for Abbott said that "it’s not surprising that his last act would be to stick taxpayers with the bill at the worst possible time."[12]
On June 26, Politico reported that the 13 counties inside the district had expressed concern about their ability to pay for the $157,000 special election.[13]
Special elections to the 115th U.S. Congress
In the 17 special elections called to fill vacancies in the 115th Congress in 2017 and 2018, nine Republicans and eight Democrats won. Four elections resulted in a partisan flip:
- Doug Jones (D), U.S. Senate in Alabama;
- Conor Lamb (D), Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District;
- Mary Gay Scanlon (D), Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District; and
- Susan Wild (D), Pennsylvania's 15th Congressional District.
District history
2016
Heading into the election, Ballotpedia rated this race as safely Republican. Incumbent Blake Farenthold (R) defeated Raul (Roy) Barrera (D) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Farenthold defeated Gregg Deeb in the Republican primary on March 1, 2016, while Barrera defeated Ray Madrigal and Wayne Raasch to win the Democratic primary.[17][18]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Blake Farenthold Incumbent |
61.7% | 142,251 | |
| Democratic | Raul (Roy) Barrera | 38.3% | 88,329 | |
| Total Votes | 230,580 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State | ||||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Blake Farenthold Incumbent |
55.9% | 42,195 | ||
| Gregg Deeb | 44.1% | 33,280 | ||
| Total Votes | 75,475 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State |
||||
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Raul Barrera |
50.3% | 15,939 | ||
| Ray Madrigal | 35.2% | 11,157 | ||
| Wayne Raasch | 14.4% | 4,570 | ||
| Total Votes | 31,666 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State |
||||
2014
The 27th Congressional District of Texas held an election for the U.S. House of Representatives on November 4, 2014. Incumbent Blake Farenthold (R) defeated Wesley Reed (D) and Roxanne Simonson (L) in the general election.
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Blake Farenthold Incumbent |
63.6% | 83,342 | |
| Democratic | Wesley Reed | 33.7% | 44,152 | |
| Libertarian | Roxanne Simonson | 2.7% | 3,553 | |
| Total Votes | 131,047 | |||
| Source: Texas Secretary of State | ||||
External links
See also
- Special elections to the 115th United States Congress (2017-2018)
- Texas' 27th Congressional District
- Texas' 27th Congressional District election, 2018
- Blake Farenthold
Footnotes
- ↑ Roll Call, "Farenthold Resigns After Sexual Harassment Scandal," April 6, 2018
- ↑ New York Times, "Emergency Special Election Will Replace Texas' Farenthold," April 24, 2018
- ↑ Kiii TV, "Bech Bruun not campaigning in District 27 special election," May 23, 2018
- ↑ Corpus Christi Caller-Times, "Republican Bech Bruun endorses Michael Cloud in Texas' 27th Congressional District race," May 30, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "Republicans looking to avoid a runoff in sleepy special election to replace Blake Farenthold," June 26, 2018
- ↑ Houston Public Media, "Why Texas Special Election Remains Low Profile," May 2, 2018
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "Special Election Congressional District No. 27 Proclamation," accessed April 25, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "Texas is holding a special election to fill Blake Farenthold’s seat. Here’s how that works.," April 27, 2018
- ↑ Texas Redistricting Map, "Map," accessed July 24, 2012
- ↑ Washington Examiner, "Greg Abbott calls on former Rep. Blake Farenthold to 'cover all costs' of special election," April 25, 2018
- ↑ Victoria Advocate, "Farenthold leaves bad legacy, big debt," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Texas Tribune, "Blake Farenthold tells Gov. Abbott he won't pay for special election to replace him," May 2, 2018
- ↑ Politico, "Texas officials rage against ‘crazy’ Farenthold election," June 26, 2018
- ↑ Daily Kos, "2008, 2012, & 2016 Presidential Election Results by District," accessed July 11, 2018
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Both general election candidates were Democrats.
- ↑ Lamb won by a margin of 0.4 percentage points.
- ↑ Texas Secretary of State, "2016 March Primary Election Candidate Filings by County," accessed December 15, 2015
- ↑ The New York Times, "Texas Primary Results," March 1, 2016