Valentine's Day voting

Early voting began Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14 and will continue through Feb. 25, with the primary election for both the Democratic and Republican parties set for Tuesday, March 1.

According to Texas law, if any candidate from either party has no opponent in their own race, they will be the winner for that party and will compete against the opposing party for votes in the general election on Nov. 8. If the winning primary candidate does not have an opponent from the other party, they will then be the presumed office holder and take office on Jan. 1, 2023.

If an office has more than two candidates for the same seat, a candidate must receive 50% plus one vote to win, otherwise, a runoff election will ensue on May 26.

In the republican primary there are many offices being sought, with multiple candidates running. Incumbent Congressman Randy Weber has two other republican opponents, while Governor Gregg Abbott has six in Allen B. West, Chad Prather, Rick Perry, Paul Belew, Don Huffines and Kandy Kaye Horn.

The presumed front-runner for the Democratic party, Beto O’Rourke has four others vying for the spot to compete with the republican candidate in November for the Governorship, including Inocencio “Inno” Barrientez, Michael Cooper, Joy Diaz and Rich Wakeland.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has five competitors, including Aaron Sorrells, Trayce Bradford, Daniel Miller, Zach Vance and Todd M. Bullis. Attorney General Ken Paxton will run against four other candidates to retain his position, including George P. Bush, Eva Guzman and Louie Gohmert.

The local election to find a new state representative for District 19, which was vacated by James White so he could run for Commissioner of Agriculture, has garnered four candidates in the republican primary race.

Retiring State Representative District 22 Joe Deshotel opened up his seat after announcing he wouldn’t seek re-election, with three Democratic candidates, including Christian "Manuel" Hayes, Lisa C. Weber and Joseph Paul Trahan.

There are four candidates in the Jefferson County Commissioner, Precinct 2 race, with Cary Erickson, Alex Rupp and Shaun Miller all running as republicans and Julia Rodriguez running as a democrat.

The last primary election, held March 3, 2020, garnered 35,351 votes, 24.10% of 146,703 registered voters in Jefferson County. In the last “non presidential

election year,” March 9, 2018, out of 146,531 registered voters, there were just 21,880, 14.93%, of voters cast ballots to determine who would represent them in the coming November election.