The Week in the Rearview Mirror

Roughly 950,000 Republican and Democratic voters cast ballots across Texas in party primary runoff elections on Tuesday. On the GOP side, Tea Party candidates did extremely well at the top of the ticket while establishment Republicans did better in downballot legislative races. Democrats, meanwhile, avoided major embarrassment by not choosing an advocate of President Obama's impeachment as its U.S. Senate nominee. But Democrats also nominated for ag commissioner someone who promises not to campaign for the office.

An analysis showed that Dan Patrick won the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor with 65 percent of the votes in Tuesday's runoff election, but he earned votes from only 3.5 percent of registered Texas voters.

Congress' oldest member, 91-year-old Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, was defeated on Tuesday. His defeat, coupled with the retirement of Michigan Congressman John Dingell, means the next Congress will have no WWII veterans.

The two contenders for governor — Republican Greg Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis — continued their brinksmanship on debates for the general election campaign. Davis proposed this week six debates with Abbott preferring to stick with his original proposal of two debates.

The Houston City Council on Wednesday passed a landmark ordinance that gave equal rights protections to gay and transgendered residents. Opponents are expected to seek a referendum to try to repeal the ordinance in November.

Prominent Texas Republicans were all over the map this week, literally: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz went to Israel for a two-day visit, U.S. Reps. Michael Burgess and Steve Stockman were part of the congressional delegation observing elections in Ukraine and Gov. Rick Perry went to Iowa to campaign for his counterpart there, Terry Branstad.

State Sen. Wendy Davis, the Texas Democratic candidate for governor, has titled her upcoming memoir Forgetting to Be Afraid: A Memoir. The book is due to hit the shelves in September.