Texas runoff results: Ugarte wins Sheriff, Montoya takes DA, Gonzales secures GOP nomination
El Paso voters will decide Tuesday, May 28, which candidates will represent their party on the Nov. 5 General Election ballot.
El Paso, the rest of Texas, 13 other states, and American Samoa held primary elections on Super Tuesday, March 5.
However, Super Tuesday left five races undecided in El Paso. The most closely watched contests are for El Paso County Sheriff and District Attorney.
United States Representative, District 23
Constable, Precinct No. 1
Click here for live results from Tuesday's election.
Ugarte wins El Paso County Sheriff runoff
11:15 p.m. MT: Oscar Ugarte wins the El Paso County sheriff runoff election with 57.4% of the vote, defeating Bobby Flores who received 42.6%.
- Aaron Bedoya
Montoya wins El Paso DA runoff election
11:12 p.m. MT: James Montoya wins the El Paso DA runoff election with 52.0% of the vote, defeating Alma Trejo who secured 48.0%.
- Aaron Bedoya
Gonzales wins District 23 GOP runoff: AP
11:10 p.m. MT: The Associated Press has projected Tony Gonzales as the nominee in the District 23 Republican primary runoff, with 50.7% of the vote, defeating Brandon Herrera, who garnered 49.3%.
- Aaron Bedoya
Ugarte leads in El Paso Sheriff runoff against Flores
Oscar Ugarte is ahead in the El Paso County sheriff runoff election with 57.4% of the votes, while Robert "Bobby" Flores trails with 42.6%.
- Aaron Bedoya
Montoya edges ahead in El Paso DA runoff election
In the El Paso District Attorney runoff election, James Montoya has a narrow lead over Alma Trejo, with Montoya securing 51.9% of the votes.
- Aaron Bedoya
After Dade Phelan victory in District 21, Ken Paxton threatens Texas House members against supporting speaker
After failing to oust House Speaker Dade Phelan, R-Beaumont, from office through his support of outside challenger David Covey, Attorney General Ken Paxton is threatening members of the lower chamber who fall in line with its reincarnate leader.
In a statement shorty after Phelan declared victory and The Associated Press called the race around 9:40 p.m., Paxton released a statement making an unfounded accusation that Phelan had stolen the election by eliciting Democratic support.
Paxton's letter, which followed a similar message from the Covey campaign, charged that "at least 1,442 Democrats who voted early in Jefferson County, making up 20% of Jefferson County's early vote numbers."
In Texas, voters of both major political parties are allowed to vote in either party primary election, although the voter must then vote in that same party's runoff election if they cast a runoff ballot.
Paxton in the aftermath of Tuesday's result called to end that ability and close primaries to only voters registered to that party, all while threatening lawmakers returning and making their foray to the Capitol.
"My message to Austin is clear: to those considering supporting Dade Phelan as Speaker in 2025, ask your 15 colleagues who lost re-election how they feel about their decision now. You will not return if you vote for Dade Phelan again," Paxton said, referencing Phelan-friendly Republicans who were defeated in the March primary.
Phelan, in a statement declaring victory, said he will now look forward to support Republican colleagues during the November election and gear up for the upcoming legislative session.
"I am immensely grateful to the voters of Southeast Texas, who have spoken loud and clear: in Southeast Texas, we set our own course—our community is not for sale, and our values are not up for auction," Phelan said.
- Austin American-Statesman
Oscar Ugarte leads in El Paso Sheriff runoff
In the 2024 El Paso County sheriff runoff, Oscar Ugarte leads with 11,180 votes (58.2%), against Robert "Bobby" Flores' 8,029 votes (41.8%).
- Aaron Bedoya
Montoya Leads Trejo in El Paso DA runoff
In the 2024 El Paso District Attorney runoff, James Montoya has garnered 51.9% of votes, edging out Alma Trejo by a slight margin.
- Aaron Bedoya
Vince Perez victorious in Texas House District 77 race
Former El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez has claimed victory in the Texas House District 77 race, besting his opponent, former state Rep. Norma Chavez, 4,048 to 2,196.
Perez got off to an early lead and held strong throughout election night, garnering 65% of the vote to replace state Rep. Lina Ortega, D-El Paso. With no Republican to face in November, Perez is casting his gaze toward the next legislative session. "This is an opportunity for us to prepare for the legislative session, which starts in January" he said. "We're lucky we don't have a November General Election, so it's time to really dig into the issues that really face El Paso.
- Adam Powell
Montoya holds slight lead over Trejo in El Paso District Attorney runoff election
In the 2024 El Paso District Attorney runoff election for the 34th Judicial District, James Montoya has taken a slight lead against Alma Trejo. Montoya secured 51.6% of the vote with a total of 8,321 votes, while Trejo garnered 48.4% with 7,792 votes.
- Aaron Bedoya
Ugarte leads El Paso County Sheriff runoff with 58.3% of the vote
In the 2024 El Paso County sheriff runoff election, Oscar Ugarte secured 58.3% of the vote with a total of 9,507 votes, and Robert "Bobby" Flores garnered 41.7% with 6,807 votes.
- Aaron Bedoya
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan survives challenge in nail-biter
Embattled Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan, who has spent the 2024 election cycle in the crosshairs of former President Donald Trump and two of the state's most powerful statewide officeholders, survived his GOP primary runoff election Tuesday in House District 21.
Phelan, in his second term as speaker and his fourth term as a state representative, defeated newcomer David Covey 52.3% to 47.3%, according to unofficial vote totals by the Texas Secretary of State's Office.
The victory for Phelan is a setback for L.t Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who campaigned vigorously for Covey and have been calling for Phelan's ouster.
With no Democrat on the November ballot, Phelan's reelection to the House is assured. Whether he can win a third term at the helm of the lower chamber remains uncertain.
- Austin American-Statesman
Vince Perez leads Norma Chavez by nearly 2,700 votes in election results
With the first round of election night results, former El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez has secured his lead over former state Rep. Norma Chavez. Unofficial results show Perez topping Chavez by just under 2,700 votes. “I’m just immensely grateful to the voters,” Perez said from his election night watch party at Ild Sheepdog Brewery in Central El Paso. “This was really quite the campaign … people were receptive and heard our message.”
- Adam Powell
Oscar Ugarte leads early voting with 58.4%, Bobby Flores has 41.6%
Unofficial early voting results had Constable Oscar Ugarte in the lead at 58.4% with 9,017 votes compared with retired El Paso County Sheriff's Office Assistant Chief Robert "Bobby" Flores at 41.6% with 6,461 votes.
Dig deeper: El Paso County sheriff runoff election 2024: Bobby Flores, Oscar Ugarte in showdown
The winner between Flores and Ugarte in the Democrat runoff will face the Republican candidate, retired FBI Special Agent Minerva Torres Shelton, in the general election on Nov. 5.
- Daniel Borunda
James Montoya leads early voting in DA race with 51.7%, Alma Trejo at 48.4%
James Montoya, currently an El Paso County deputy public defender, took a slight lead in early voting with 51.7% of early votes, while Alma Trejo, former El Paso County Criminal Court #1 judge, took 48.4% of the votes.
Dig deeper: El Paso DA runoff election 2024: James Montoya takes slight lead against Alma Trejo
- Aaron Martinez
Early votes in Texas House District 21 show Phelan with lead
With early returns from all three counties in Texas House District 21, Speaker Dade Phelan is leading challenger David Covey by about 1,000 votes.
The smallest county in the district went big for Covey, nearly 71% to 29%. There were fewer that 3,000 votes in the early-return dump.
- Austin American-Statesman
Vince Perez takes big early vote lead in District 77 race
Former El Paso County Commissioner Vince Perez came out to an early lead in the Texas House District 77 runoff, with 3,185 votes compared to 1,626 for former state Rep. Norma Chavez. A small crowd of Chavez supporters were gathered on the patio at Pink Cloud in Central El Paso, but Chavez was not yet present.
- Adam Powell
Dade Phelan takes early lead in his part of House District 21
With early votes on the Texas Secretary of State's website so far reporting only results from Jefferson County, embattled Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan has a 69-31 percent lead, according to the early vote count.Jefferson is Phelan's home county. Orange, the largest county in House District 21, hadn't reported its early vote count as of 6:35 p.m. MT Neither had the smallest, Jasper County.
- Austin American-Statesman
Rep. Tony Gonzales takes early lead against Brandon Herrera
With 26% of votes reported, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-San Antonio, has emerged with a nearly 60-40% lead over his GOP primary runoff opponent Brandon Herrera, a gun-toting YouTuber and North Carolina transplant known as “The AK Guy" who attacked Gonzales for his support of a bipartisan gun safety bill passed in the wake of the mass school shooting in Uvalde. Election day results have not yet been tallied.
- Austin American-Statesman
El Paso sees 8,000 in-person votes cast
As of 5:58 p.m. El Paso County Elections Department has checked in a total of 8,000 in-person votes cast
Visit epcountyvotes.com to review your sample ballot.
- Trish Long
Early voting in El Paso runoff sees low turnout
The five-day early voting period, which ran from Monday, March 20, through Friday, March 24, saw 11,830 ballots cast in person and another 3,964 cast ballots by mail. The totals represent just 3.1% of El Paso's 507,865 registered voters.
The vast majority of those votes — 3,937 by mail and 11,554 in person — were cast by Democrats, who will see four different races on Tuesday's primary runoff ballot. Republicans, by contrast, only have one race to weigh in on.
"This runoff is unique in that only the Democratic Party had any countywide races," El Paso County Elections Administrator Lisa Wise said in an email, "while the Republican Party has a ballot with one race which only covers about 10% of El Paso County’s voting precincts."
Wise said primary runoffs typically only attract about 5% of voters and she expects a similar trend to play out today.
- Adam Powell
El Paso voting locations open until 7 p.m.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at more than 100 voting locations across El Paso County.
- Aaron Bedoya
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: 2024 Texas runoff election in El Paso: Results, updates
