After winning just under 55% of the Republican primary vote, Glenn Hegar could be headed for the state senate. But first he may have to beat a Democrat who already withdrew from the race.
Democrat Dr. Henry Boehm Jr. announced he was dropping out of the race for Sen. District 18, however, he didn’t do so in time to have his name removed from the ballot. And when the votes were totaled, Boehm came away with more than 51%.
Democrat Bret Baldwin, who campaigned throughout the district, only was able to get 48.8% of the vote.
Secretary of State spokesman Scott Haywood said Wednesday that as of now, Boehm is officially the Democratic nominee for the seat, and unless he says otherwise, he’ll face Hegar in the general election.
Boehm, a family physician from Brenham who also serves as a faculty member in the Texas A&M medical program, said Wednesday he hasn’t yet decided whether to accept the voters’ mandate.
“It came by complete surprise,” Boehm said. “I am honored and very humbled by… the people who have voted for me. And I’m going to carefully contemplate it for the next few days.”
Hegar’s closest Republican opponent Tuesday was Gary Gates, who got 35.63% of the vote, while David Stall received 9.44%.
Early on it appeared Hegar was losing ground, and Gates conceivably could have been in position to force a runoff election. However, Hegar gained momentum as the night wore on.
Except for a slew of runoffs, the remainder of Tuesday’s local contested races went to the incumbents.
That included Democrat District 27 State Rep. Dora Olivo and Republican District 26 State Rep. Charlie Howard. Olivo took about 60% of the vote to challenger Steve Brown’s 40%, and Howard got more than 66% of the vote to challenger Ron Booker’s 33.2%.
Brady Elliott, incumbent 268th District Court judge, easily repelled a challenge from attorney Roxie Roll, by a vote count of 11,944 for Elliott to 6,585 votes for Roll.
Incumbent District Attorney John Healey won another term, besting challenger Larry McDougal with 59.8% of the vote compared to McDougal’s 40.2%.
Incumbent County Clerk Dianne Wilson won big over opponent D. Ann Criswell, getting almost 70% of the vote to Criswell’s 30.3%.
Richmond area businessman Jeff Council becomes the Republican candidate for county treasurer after dispatching challenger Naren Patel 12,148 votes to 7,860.
And Richmond attorney Ken Cannata took more than 62% of the vote in winning Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 over Nancy Lusk.
