ALEX DOMINGUEZ

Republican incumbents are successfully defending their seats while the party appears to be making inroads in South Texas.

Cameron County Commissioners Court will meet Tuesday where commissioners will consider adopting a resolution in support of SpaceX’s Starship/Super Heavy Program. The background/back up information for the resolution had not been provided at the earlier meetings. The Commissioners Court meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. inside the Historic Dancy Building, located at 1100 E. Monroe St. The resolution also states SpaceX will undertake numerous measures to enhance recreation, mitigate environmental impacts, and conserve environmental resources around Boca Chica. Commissioners Court will also vote on whether to abandon several portions of roads near the Boca Chica launch site that include Annette, Joanna and Remedios roads to support spaceport and economic development, background information on the agenda items state.

Will roads owned by Cameron County around the SpaceX Boca Chica launch site be abandoned? Cameron County Commissioners Court this past week was expected to address this issue during a commissioners court meeting but tabled it instead. After going into executive session for about two hours, commissioners court tabled four items pertaining to the Boca Chica site that include consideration and adoption of an order to abandon a portion of Remedios Avenue, Joanna Street, Annette Street and Lucero Court, all located near the SpaceX Boca Chica site. In addition, the court tabled consideration and possible action to adopt a resolution regarding SpaceX Super Heavy Project at Boca Chica Beach. The orbital launch would be many times more powerful than the non-orbital Starship test flights that have taken place so far at Boca Chica.

Her outright victory in a special election is the latest chapter in a topsy-turvy election cycle for South Texas, which Republicans have worked to turn into a new battleground.

The departure of three top officials in a week signals that officials may be looking to make changes to the heavily criticized mission. A soldier leading a unionization effort welcomed the moves.

The Democratic Party’s nomination for State Senator District 27 and House District 37 will be decided in a runoff election May 24, after no candidate in either race drew a clear majority of votes in Tuesday’s primary elections.

In Hidalgo County, Lamantia earned 4,754 votes, or 49.37%, over Stapleton-Barrera, Alex Dominguez and Salomon Torres. Dominguez earned 1,711 votes in Hidalgo County, or 17.77%, while Stapleton-Barrera earned 2,365 votes and Torres earned 800 votes. In the Republican race for State Senate District 27, Adam Hinojosa earned 51.53% of the vote with 12,748 votes to Raul Torres’ 5,419 and Isreal Salinas’ 2,177. The Republican ticket for State Senate District 20 saw ​​Westley Wright with a commanding lead over Johnny Partain with 74.45% of the vote, 10,413 votes to 3,701. In Hidalgo County, Wright took 4,484 total votes over Partain’s 2,512 votes.

HARLINGEN — The race to replace long-time state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. was too close to call late Tuesday night for both Democrats and Republicans seeking to take his spot in State Senate District 27. All the vote totals from the Texas Secretary of State’s office and Cameron County are unofficial. The 27th Senate District is regarded as competitive between the two parties but Democrats have a rating of D-57 percent in the Texas Partisan Index. Among Republicans in Cameron County, with 58 percent of precincts reporting, Hinojosa had 3,374 votes, or 45.5 percent, Torres had 2,682 votes, or 36 percent, and Salinas had 1,374 votes, or 18.5 percent. Lucio announced his retirement from the state Senate last November after first being elected to the office in 1990.

Early results in the Democratic primary election show Vicente Gonzalez ahead in the U.S. Representative District 34 race with 59.45% of the vote or 8,029 votes. Beto O’Rouke, Democratic for Texas governor, has 81.36% of the early vote or 10,930 votes. In the State Senator District 27 race, Sara Stapleton-Barrera received 36.82% or 5,001 early votes. In the State Rep. District 37 race, Ruben Cortez received 40.72% of the early vote or 2,051 votes. In the race for State Rep. District 38, Erin Elizabeth Gamez received 58.19% of the early vote or 3,832 votes.

The race to replace state senator Eddie Lucio Jr. features four candidates, each with a competing vision for the future of their party.

The four Democratic candidates running for their party’s nomination in the District 27 race for state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.’s old seat listed the district’s assets along with their qualifications and ideas to meet its challenges during a candidates’ forum Wednesday night at the VentureX shared working space in Brownsville.

Texas state Rep. Alex Dominguez announced Wednesday he will be seeking State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr.'s soon-to-be vacant seat.

Lucio is retiring from the Rio Grande Valley seat, and Dominguez wants to continue his legacy of focusing on education in the region. But he suggested he would take a different approach to at least a couple issues, including abortion.

Lucio announced Thursday that he is not seeking reelection after three decades in the Senate.

The Brownsville Democrat, who made the announcement Thursday, has served in the upper chamber since 1991.

Democratic Party officials are howling about new state House districts for the Rio Grande Valley. And while most people would agree that the primary reasoning behind both the new lines and the outcry are about party strength, the changes could have some positive as well as negative outcomes.

Texas Republicans are on the verge of creating a newly competitive state House seat in the Rio Grande Valley as they push to go on the offensive in South Texas next year.

The likely new district comes as Texas Republicans continue to try to make new inroads in South Texas after the 2020 election.

State Rep. Alex Dominguez, D-Brownsville, said Wednesday he planned to remain at the U.S. Capitol despite the civil arrest warrants that Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed Tuesday evening for the 52 House Democrats who broke quorum and left the state July 12.

State Rep. Alex Dominguez, D-Brownsville, said Wednesday he planned to remain at the U.S. Capitol despite the civil arrest warrants that Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan signed Tuesday evening for the 52 House Democrats who broke quorum and left the state July 12.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican leaders in the Texas House signed arrest warrants for 52 Democrats who have blocked voting legislation in a standoff that stretched into its 31st day Wednesday, but it was not yet clear whether that threat would be enough to get lawmakers to return to the state Capitol.

Thanks, Texas state legislative Democrats, for supporting easy and honest voting in Texas. You have been, and are, a force against the racism that is sweeping conservative legislatures around the nation and in Texas.

State Reps. Bobby Guerra, D-McAllen; Armando “Mando” Martinez, D-Weslaco; and Brownsville lawmakers Eddie Lucio III and Alex Dominguez joined the Democratic contingent in Washington to pressure Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. These bills are aimed at protecting and expanding voting rights. Greg Abbott’s special legislative session, of which Abbott and Texas Republican legislators hoped to pass new voting restrictions. Dominguez said he anticipates unity among his local colleagues in fighting Abbott’s proposed voting restrictions. “Texas Democrats’ decision to break a quorum of the Texas Legislature and abandon the Texas State Capitol inflicts harm on the very Texans who elected them to serve,” Abbott’s statement read.

Statewide officials are campaigning in the Democratic stronghold and GOP groups are now targeting statehouse districts.

Rick Perry, in a rare return to policy debates in Austin, is teaming up with a Democratic state lawmaker to push for psychedelic drug therapy for veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.