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Republican Lujan defeats Democrat Ramirez in special election runoff for Texas House District 118

Republican John Lujan wins seat formerly held by Democrat Leo Pacheco

John Lujan won a special runoff election for Texas House District 118. (KSAT)

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Updated at 11:18 p.m.:

Republican John Lujan defeated Democrat Frank Ramirez with about 100% of the vote counted. Lujan had 5,924 or 51% of the vote compared to 5,638 or 49% for Ramirez, who had the lead for a portion of the night.

Previously:

The special election runoff Tuesday for a state House seat in San Antonio carries high stakes, with Republicans working hard to flip it as part of their new South Texas offensive and Democrats making clear they are not taking anything for granted.

Republican John Lujan is facing Democrat Frank Ramirez for the Democratic-leaning seat that former state Rep. Leo Pacheco, a Democrat from San Antonio, vacated earlier this year to take a job at San Antonio College.

Lujan briefly held the seat in 2016. Ramirez is a former staffer for the San Antonio City Council and at the Texas Legislature.

The two are meeting for a second time after an election on Sept. 28 that included three others candidates failed to produce a top vote-getter with more than 50 percentage points plus one vote. Lujan received 2.938 or 41% of the vote. Coming in second was Ramirez, who captured 1,416 or 20% of the vote.

This is not the first time that Lujan has been involved in a special election.

He was victorious in a January 2016 special election to represent the district, but in the November 2016 general election, he was defeated by Democrat Tomas Uresti.

Lujan ran again in the general election held in November 2018 but was soundly defeated by Pacheco.

The district

District 118 covers the southern and eastern parts of Bexar County and is home to 165,000 people, according to the Texas House website. About 75% of the residents are Hispanic. Ten thousand residents are veterans.

Texas House District 118 (KSAT/Brittney Daniels)

The Texas Tribune contributed to this story.


About the Author
David Ibañez headshot

David Ibañez has been managing editor of KSAT.com since the website's launch in October 2000.

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