Liveblog: 2014 General Election Results
![Travis County residents line up to vote at Austin's Highland Mall on Nov. 4, 2014.](https://thumbnails.texastribune.org/wYVqMAozOCSsYEYaM0mpMD3iaVY=/850x570/smart/filters:quality(75)/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/2014/11/04/TCVoting013.jpg)
Throughout the night, Tribune reporters will keep you updated on the results of general election battles statewide, from the first early voting totals through the last ballots counted, from local legislative races to the governor's race.
Follow our liveblog below for up-to-the-minute news from our reporters across the state. You can also see election night returns in near real time on our election scoreboard.
To catch up on our previous coverage, check out our 2014 Elections page. You can also use our Election Brackets to trace races back to the primary stage.
Liveblog
Denton County is showing early voting results. That's where folks in the city of Denton are deciding whether to become the first Texas town to ban hydraulic fracturing within city limits. With more than 16,700 votes tallied, the pro-ban (meaning anti-fracking) contingent leads 59 percent to 41 percent.
Some early votes coming in the governor's race - Greg Abbott ahead of Wendy Davis 69 percent to 30 percent with 14 of 8,453 precincts reporting.
Also some early vote totals coming in the lieutenant governor's race - Dan Patrick leads Leticia Van de Putte 66 percent to 31 percent with 36 of 8,453 precincts reporting.
Wendy Davis' old Fort Worth Senate seat appears to be leaning to the right in the early voting totals released by Tarrant County. Out of about 105,000 votes, Tea Party-backed Republican Konni Burton leads her Democratic opponent, Libby Willis, 52 to 46 percent.
In statewide races, Republicans are easily beating Democrats, according to initial yet incomplete early vote reports.
With 84 of 8,453 precincts reporting, all of the statewide Republican candidates are leading their Democratic opponents by more than 10 percentage points. In some cases, Republicans are ahead by more than 20 points
The closest race is the one for lieutenant governor, where Republican Dan Patrick is ahead of Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, 55.8 percent to 41.5 percent, a gap of 14.3 percentage points.
After early voting and nearly 9 percent of precincts reporting in the race for railroad commissioner, Ryan Sitton leads Steve Brown 58 percent to about 37 percent. The winner will oversee an oil and gas boom unseen in 30 years, and deal with the challenges it brings.
In two Houston-area districts, early voting totals from Harris County show incumbents faring differently. Democrat Hubert Vo, who has been the representative for House District 149 (which is west of Houston) since 2006, is leading his Republican challenger Al Hoang by 53 to 47 percent out of a total 13,000 votes.
But in House District 144, which is East of Houston, Democratic incumbent Mary Ann Perez is trailing her Republican challenger, Gilbert Pena. Pena has gotten 53 percent of about 6000 votes, compared to Perez's 47 percent.
In House District 136, which includes Williamson County and Northwest Austin, Republican incumbent Tony Dale is leading Democratic opponent John Bucy III by 57 to 39 percent. That's out of a total of about 21,000 votes.
Early voting in San Antonio's Bexar County shows incumbent and Democrat Philip Cortez is trailing his Republican challenger Rick Galindo by 4 points.
During early voting, Galindo pulled in 7,399 votes while Cortez received 6,819 votes — that is a total of more than 14,000 votes.
Early results have Republican challenger Will Hurd with an edge over incumbent Democrat Pete Gallego of Alpine in the race for CD-23, which is considered the state’s only competitive congressional seat. With nine of 334 precincts reporting, Hurd is up by about 10 percentage points, or about 4,300 votes. The district also includes a swath of east El Paso County, where polls close at 8 p.m. CST.
With early voting tallied, Republican Morgan Meyer is up big in the battle for HD-108 – the North Dallas and Park Cities-anchored seat Dan Branch vacated. With nearly 61 percent of the vote, Meyer leads Leigh Bailey, a Democrat.
Texas' Secretary of State's office voting totals so far show a hefty lead for Republican land commissioner candidate George P. Bush, with 59 percent of the vote so far, amounting to nearly 1.2 million votes.
And in the agriculture commissioner race, Republican Sid Miller leads comfortably with 57 percent of the vote, or about 1.15 million votes.
Texas' Secretary of State's office early voting results for State Board of Education District 13 show Erika Beltran with 89.8 percent of votes.
In HD-43, incumbent state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, holds a sizable lead over Democratic challenger Kim Gonzalez, an assistant district attorney from Nueces County. Lozano has 64 percent of the vote, compared to Gonzalez’s 36 percent. The incumbent told the Texas Tribune at 8 p.m. CST that he is ahead in San Patricio and Bee counties by a sizable margin.
We just called the railroad commission race for Ryan Sitton. The Houston-area Republican touts his oil industry expertise, boasting that he would be the first engineer to serve on the commission in more than 50 years.
We're calling a GOP sweep in statewide races: Greg Abbott in the governor's race, Dan Patrick in the LG race, Ken Paxton in the AG race, Glenn Hegar in the comptroller race, George P. Bush in the land commissioner's race, Ryan Sitton for railroad commissioner and Sid Miller for agriculture commissioner.
We've called state Senate seats for HD-14 for Democratic incumbent Kirk Watson, HD-16 for Republican Donald Huffines, HD-30 for Republican incumbent Craig Estes and HD-30 for Republican incumbent Kel Seliger.
In the CD-23 race, Republican challenger Will Hurd is beating Democrat Pete Gallego, D, Alpine in Bexar County, with about 21,000 votes to Gallego’s 14,400. Gallego leads in El Paso County with about 2,500 to Hurd’s 540. Overall, Hurd holds an edge over the incumbent by about 3,000 votes, or about 6 percentage points.
Ryan Sitton, the Republican set to join the Texas Railroad Commission, just released a statement on his victory over Steve Brown. “I look forward to working on water, seismicity, jurisdiction, infrastructure, technology and other issues to ensure that the responsible production of our natural resources continues to grow,” he said. “With the right energy policies in place, Texas can lead America to energy independence and we can secure our energy future for generations of Texans.”
With more than 10 percent of precincts now reporting in Tarrant County's SD-10, Tea Party-backed Republican candidate Konni Burton has 51.4 percent of the vote over Democrat Libby Willis' 47 percent. That's out of a total of 110,730 votes.
Thirty-four percent of precincts have reported in HD-23, which includes Chambers County and part of Galveston County. Republican Wayne Faircloth is leading Democrat Susan Criss 54 percent to 46 percent. The district been represented by state Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, for two decades. He announced last year that he would not seek re-election. The district, which still recovering from the effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008, heard plenty of debate from the candidates about whether the state should have any involvement in the insurance industry.
With about 20 percent of precincts reporting in the CD-23 race, Republican challenger Will Hurd’s lead over Democratic incumbent Pete Gallego, D-Alpine is shrinking slightly. Hurd has about 32,900 of the votes to Gallego’s 30,460. Hurd leads by about 3 percentage points. It’s considered the state’s only toss-up congressional seat. The district includes all or part of 29 counties and about 800 miles of border.
A few more votes have been tallied in Denton, which is considering a fracking ban. With eight of 39 precincts reporting, the pro-ban (anti-fracking) contingent still leads 59 percent to 41 percent.
With more than half of the precincts reporting in closely-watched Senate District 10 (Wendy Davis' old Fort Worth Senate seat), Republican Konni Burton is still ahead of her Democratic opponent Libby Willis. Burton has 51 percent of the 137,346 votes counted so far.
With a little more than one-third of precincts reporting in HD-117, Republican Rick Galindo is leading Democrat and incumbent Philip Cortez by a little more than 4 percentage points.
More votes in from HD-144, east of Houston, with 72% of precincts now reporting. Incumbent Democrat Mary Ann Perez is still trailing her Republican challenger Gilbert Pena. He's got 51.7 percent of the vote while she's at 48 percent. That's out of a total 9,385 ballots counted so far. If Perez loses, that would be an upset for this district which was redrawn in the last redistricting cycle to favor Democrats by dramatically increasing the population of Hispanics within it.
The Texas Tribune has called State Board of Education races for District 3 for Democratic incumbent Marisa Perez, District 7 for Republican incumbent David Bradley, District 12 for Republican incumbent Geraldine “Tincy” Miller and District 13 for Democrat Erika Belton.
With about 39 percent of precincts reporting in the CD-23 race, Republican challenger Will Hurd’s lead over Democratic incumbent Pete Gallego, D-Alpine is back up by about 4,100 ballots, or about 5 percentage points.
Denton's mayor says the city's fracking ban has passed, according to reports. With 14 of 39 precincts reporting, 60 percent of voters supported the ban.
With a third of the precincts reporting in the HD-43 race, incumbent state Rep. J.M. Lozano, R-Kingsville, holds a considerable lead over Democratic challenger Kim Gonzalez, an assistant district attorney from Nueces County. Lozano has 62 percent of the vote, compared to Gonzalez’s 39 percent.
Now more than 84 percent of precincts in SD-10 (Fort Worth) are reporting, with 165,129 votes counted so far, and Republican candidate Konni Burton has 52 percent of the vote to Libby Willis' 45 percent. If Burton wins, the Republicans will have taken a swing district that most recently was held by Wendy Davis.
With 40 percent of precincts reporting, Republicans are leading by more than 20 percentage points in all of the statewide races.
Among all the statewide candidates, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn had the most commanding lead, with 62 percent of the vote against Democrat David Alameel's 34 percent, a 28 percent gap.
And HD-144 is very close, with Democratic incumbent Mary Ann Perez trailing her Republican challenger Gilbert Pena by just 159 votes. That's with 98 percent of precincts reporting in this district that's east of Houston, or 11,387 ballots counted. Perez was able to beat back an comfortable lead on election day, with early voting totals showing her down by a few hundred votes.
HD-117 remains a close election, but Republican Rick Galindo holds onto the lead he has had all night. With three-fourths of precincts reporting in, Galindo is leading Democratic incumbent 57 percent to 48 percent.
The Texas Tribune has called State Senate seats for SD-15 for Republican incumbent John Whitmire, SD-17 for Republican Donald Huffines, SD-23 for Democratic incumbent Royce West, SD-25 for Republican incumbent Donna Campbell.
The Texas Tribune is calling SD-10, Wendy Davis' old Senate seat in Fort Worth, for Tea Party-backed Republican Konni Burton. With more than 80 percent of precincts reporting, Burton has 52 percent of the vote (86,000 votes) over Democrat Libby Willis' 45 percent (75,000 votes).
Sixty percent of precincts have reported in HD-23, which includes Chambers County and part of Galveston County. Republican Wayne Faircloth is still leading Democrat Susan Criss 54 percent to 46 percent.
The Texas Tribune is calling HD-149, a district west of Houston, for Democratic incumbent Hubert Vo. He leads his Republican opponent Al Hoang by almost 2000 votes out of a total of 21,058 votes. Only one more precinct out of 26 total hasn't reported.
In her victory speech after winning Wendy Davis' old Senate seat in Fort Worth, Tea Party Republican Konni Burton focused on blasting Davis, rather than her actual opponent — who was Democrat Libby Willis.
"We were all sick and tired of being represented by a liberal in Austin who didn’t reflect the conservative values of District 10," Burton told supporters. "Tonight, those those value have been restored. Tonight our neighbors have spoken."
Echoing the words of Republicans statewide, Burton also jabbed the president and the national Democratic Party. "Nationally, the American people have rejected the president’s agenda for our nation. In Texas, the people have sent the Democrats packing," she said.
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