SAN ANTONIO – UPDATE: Democrat Ray Lopez has won the special runoff election for the House District 125 seat against Republican opponent Fred Rangel.
Lopez won with a little more than 58 percent of the vote, while Rangel had about 42 percent.
The election comes in the middle of the 86th state Legislature session.
The seat was left vacant after Justin Rodriguez was tapped to become Bexar County's commissioner for Precinct 2 following the death of Commissioner Paul Elizondo.
Lopez expressed how eager he was to get to the state capitol during a forum last month.
Rangel was endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, as well as other Republicans.
The winner of the election will represent the district for the next two years.
SPECIAL ELECTION RUNOFF RESULTS:
NAME | PARTY | TOTAL VOTES | TOTAL PERCENT | EARLY VOTES | EARLY VOTES PERCENT |
Ray Lopez | Democrat | 5,311 | 58.42 | 3,303 | 56.89 |
Fred A. Rangel | Republican | 3,780 | 41.57 | 2,502 | 43.10 |
Race Total |
| 9,091 |
| 5,805 |
|
Precincts Reported | 60/60 precincts |
|
|
|
|
(PREVIOUSLY)
Voting for the special runoff election for House District 125 seat is Tuesday.
Democrat Ray Lopez and Republican Fred Rangel are facing off for the seat left vacant by Justin Rodriguez, who moved on to become Bexar County commissioner.
Polls open at 7 a.m. and run until 7 p.m. Early voting took place last week.
During an open forum, Lopez said transportation funding is at the top of his list of concerns, including Bandera Road.
“I’m anxious to get this over with, not because of the fast spring but because I want to get to Austin to make a difference. We’ve got some important issues we want to address,” he said.
Rangel said he is most concerned with education funding. He has been endorsed by Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, as well as other Republicans.
“I’m grateful for the constituents for their participation in this race because we have seen a swelling of the participation in the constituents,” Rangel said.
The winner will represent the district for the next two years.
Set for today is a special runoff election for #Texas House District 125: Democrat Ray Lopez and Republican Fred Rangelhttps://t.co/H0XxEgHd9z
— KSAT Max Massey (@MaxMasseyTV) March 12, 2019