Several incumbent GOP state representatives fall victim at the ballot box

Last edited Wed Mar 5, 2014, 01:16 PM - Edit history (1)

Lost in primary:

District 1: George Lavender
District 4: Lance Gooden
District 55: Ralph Sheffield
District 94: Diane Patrick
District 105: Linda Harper-Brown
District 115: Bennett Ratliff

Forced to runoffs:
In district 102, Stefani Carter was forced into a runoff with Linda Koop. Carter had 3,483 votes (33.16%) compared to Koop’s 3,646 votes (34.71%).

In the GOP state senate primaries, nearly all of the incumbents advanced through the primaries. However, John Carona narrowly lost the primary in district 16 to Don Huffines. Meanwhile, Bob Deuell was forced into a runoff with Bob Hall in district 2 drawing 48.49% in a three-way race.

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On the Democratic side, the only incumbents that were eliminated in the primary were representatives Naomi R. Gonzalez (district 76) and Lon Burnam (district 90). Gonzalez lost in a three candidate race and she may have encountered some backlash due to her arrest for DWI in Austin last march. Gonzalez is also one of two openly admitted lesbians in the Texas Legislature.

The loss of Burnam is much more tragic to Texas Democrats since he has served the Fort Worth district since 1997. A school privatization group run by Wall Street bankers from New York that were upset with Burnam's work to defend public schools distributed flyers throughout the district supporting his DINO opponent, Ramon Romero. Burnam had 2,483 votes (48.90%) compared to Romero's 2,594 votes (51.09%). The seat will remain in Democratic hands since no Republicans filed in the primary; however, the loss of Burnam's experience will leave the Democrats in weaker position after the general election.

ETA: I blew it, with the comment regarding Naomi R. Gonzalez as an openly admitted lesbian. I confused her with Mary Gonzalez who is the first open pansexual. My apologies for the error.