What is the threshold required to win a texas primary election?
|
Texas held the first primary of 2022 in March, but two runoffs in the state are drawing outsize attention: Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to hold off Land Commissioner George P. Bush from holding onto the post, while Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar is trying to fend off his progressive challenger in a rematch from 2020. Show WATCH: Breaking down the primary results and what they mean for midterm elections One puts the Bush family dynasty on the line: Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, has spent the past year mounting a primary challenge to Paxton, the two-term attorney general. In March, Bush finished 20 percentage points behind Paxton in a four-way primary. Since then, Bush’s efforts to close the gap have centered on emphasizing Paxton’s legal troubles, including an ongoing FBI investigation into corruption accusations and a separate 2015 indictment on securities fraud charges. Paxton, who has denied wrongdoing, has broad support among the Republican party and Trump’s endorsement. On the Democratic side, Rep. Cuellar’s bid for a 10th term has run head-on into a reenergized national battle over abortion rights. His position as one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress has become a central issue in his runoff against Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration attorney and abortion rights supporter. Democratic House leaders have lined up behind Cuellar. Cisneros trailed Cuellar by roughly 1,000 votes in March, but Cuellar didn’t hit the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff. Associated Press writer Paul Weber in Austin, Texas contributed to this report. 04:17 - Source: CNN Latinas are pushing for a Republican revolution in South Texas Houston CNN — Texas kicks off the 2022 midterm elections Tuesday with the nation’s first primaries. Two big-name Republicans, Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, will seek to beat back challenges from the right. In South Texas, the most conservative Democrat in the US House, Rep. Henry Cuellar, is attempting to survive a rematch against Jessica Cisneros, the progressive who nearly ousted him in the primary two years ago. The contests will be the first test of how the restrictive new voting law enacted by Texas Republicans last year will reshape the electorate. One important wrinkle in Texas: To win the primary, candidates don’t just have to beat their rivals but must win more than 50% of the vote. Otherwise, the top two finishers advance to a head-to-head runoff election on May 24. That threshold could play an important role in several House primaries. Here are five things to watch in Tuesday’s primaries in Texas: Texas is among the slew of Republican-dominated states that, amid former President Donald Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud, enacted a new law that makes voting by mail more difficult and outlaws some options – such as drive-through and 24-hour early voting – that large Texas counties had used in 2020. Tuesday’s primary will be the first election to take place under the restrictive new law. And operatives and activists across the nation will be watching closely to see how the law affects primary turnout. Already, there are signs that many more votes than usual will be turned away. Large Texas counties reported unusually large numbers of rejected mail-in ballots due to confusion over the state’s new identification requirements for those ballots. Though other states with new voting laws, including Arizona, Florida and Georgia, have implemented different restrictions, many are similar to what Texas enacted, turning Tuesday into a first run that could offer a preview of what’s to come in those states’ primaries, as well. Jessica Cisneros, a 28-year-old immigration attorney, came within a few points of ousting Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in their 2020 primary. Now, with Cuellar under investigation by the FBI, progressive groups like Justice Democrats, which recruited Cisneros to run, are increasingly optimistic about their chances to defeat the long-time incumbent and lone remaining House Democrat to consistently vote against abortion rights bills. Progressive heavyweights Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have both endorsed Cisneros, but recent ads from her campaign and its allies have focused on Cuellar’s potential legal issues. One TV spot from Cisneros splices together news reports about the FBI probe. Cuellar, meanwhile, ran an ad titled, “Don’t believe her lies,” which attacked Cisneros as insufficiently supportive of border security. Victory for Cisneros, in a district that covers a long stretch of the southern border but also extends as far north as San Antonio, would be a massive one for progressives, who were put on the back foot when Republicans, including Trump, outperformed expectations in South Texas in 2020. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a two-term incumbent, could be forced into a GOP primary runoff If he doesn’t win a clear majority on Tuesday night. And with recent polling showing him falling short of that threshold, the big question in this very expensive race is which of the three challengers is most likely to advance to a potential one-on-one contest. Paxton, Trump’s endorsed candidate, is running under a cloud of ethics concerns, including an unresolved 2015 indictment for securities fraud and more recent allegations, lodged by a group of his own (now former) top aides, that he abused his office. Paxton has denied any wrongdoing, but his primary opponents have sought to use his existing legal troubles – and the possibility of more to come – to undermine his bid for a third term. If he doesn’t win the nomination outright, Paxton will face either Land Commissioner George P. Bush, former state Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman or US Rep. Louie Gohmert – all three of whom are well-funded with strong political brands across the state Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is seeking a third term. And though he faces primary challengers – including Don Huffines, a former state senator, and Allen West, a former Florida congressman and former chairman of the Texas Republican Party – he is the heavy favorite to secure the GOP nomination. Abbott is on a collision course with Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman whose near-miss in the 2018 Senate race rocketed him to Democratic stardom, but who fell back to earth after a failed 2020 presidential primary run. Texas is a Republican-leaning state and economic and historical factors suggest 2022 will be a favorable year for the GOP. O’Rourke, though, argues that Abbott’s management is to blame for the widespread power outages during the 2021 winter storm in Texas and for the GOP’s focus in the state on cultural issues – including passing a law that effectively outlaws abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy When Texas lawmakers redrew the state’s congressional districts last year, they effectively turned swing districts into a thing of the past. Battlegrounds were turned into safe seats, some for Republicans and some for Democrats. That’s made the primaries the most intense competition for seats in the US House. Republicans Reps. Dan Crenshaw, of Texas’ 2nd District, and Van Taylor, of the 3rd District, face challengers who argue they are insufficiently conservative and haven’t been supportive enough of Trump. In the 8th District, where GOP Rep. Kevin Brady is retiring, establishment favorite Morgan Luttrell, a former Navy SEAL backed by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Congressional Leadership Fund super PAC, faces far-right opponent Christian Collins, who’s been supported by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn. In two open-seat races that favor Democrats, two leading contenders – former Austin City Councilman Greg Casar in the 35th District, who, like Cisneros, has been endorsed by Ocasio-Cortez and Sanders, and state Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the 30th District – are all but certain to lead the pack, but the key question is whether they will cross the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff. What is the definition of closed primary?In Nevada, Federal/State Primary Elections are "CLOSED." That means if you chose Democratic or Republican as your party on your Voter Registration Application, you may vote only for candidates from your own party and you may also vote in nonpartisan contests.
What happens in a run off election?Runoff voting can refer to: Two-round system, a voting system used to elect a single winner, whereby only two candidates from the first round continue to the second round, where one candidate will win.
What is the special election in Texas?The 2022 Texas's 34th congressional district special election was held on June 14, 2022. The seat, which went to Democratic president Joe Biden by only 4 points in the 2020 United States presidential election after being solidly blue in the past, became vacant after Democratic incumbent representative Filemon Vela Jr.
Which US Supreme Court decision definitively eliminated the white primary in Texas?In 1944, in Smith v. Allwright, the Supreme Court ruled 8–1 against the Texas white primary system. In that case, the Court ruled that the 1923 Texas state law was unconstitutional, because it allowed the state Democratic Party to racially discriminate.
|
