2024 was a big election year and the biggest, of course, the presidential election. President Biden and former President Trump easily won their Texas primaries and eventually collected enough electoral votes to earn their party's nomination...but before we got there, the race took 2 big turns.
The first came in rural Butler Pennsylvania, where a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally and 911 calls began pouring into local police. While the bullet clipped him, two others were seriously wounded and one killed.
The second big turn in the election came not long after, when Joe Biden bent to Democrats worried about his age. He announced he would be dropping out of the race for reelection. Vice President Kamala Harris picked up the torch, and fought a good fight, but on November 5th, it was Donald Trump won re-election.
The other big race in Texas involved Democratic challenger Colin Allred trying to unseat Republican incumbent Senator Ted Cruz. The race was one of the most expensive congressional races ever, the two combined to raise $166 million.
Allred ran on women's rights and Cruz painted him as too liberal for Texas. When the dust cleared and the votes were counted, Cruz won and Allred graciously accepted defeat.
Cruz addressed his supporters noting one of his big campaign promises.
Republicans did well across Texas, winning all statewide races. They expanded their majority in the State House by flipping two seats in historically Democratic border districts.
The Latino vote continued its move to the right with Starr, Hidalgo and Cameron counties along the border, all 90% Latino voting red.
Congressman Henry Cuellar won reelection in his South Texas district despite being under federal indictment accused of bribery. The next big election will be for Speaker of the Texas House. Dade Phelan announced he won't seek that position again.
In the race between representatives David Cook and Dustin Burrows, Cook won the Republican caucus vote and as The Texan News political reporter Brad Johnson says, we could see the governor and maybe even the president stepping in to pressure Republicans on who to select.
While this was a big election year, with the legislature convening in mid-January, it won't be long before we see more political wrangling and big votes are expected on among other things like school vouchers.
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