Texas Primary Election Results Breakdown: Surprises, Runoffs & Upsets
March 4, 2026
Transcript
Craig Cohen, Houston Public Media 88.7FM NPR (host):
Mark, what are your takeaways from the Harris County Judges races both heading to runoffs?
Mark Jones, Rice University (panelist):
Well I think on the Republican side one of the issues with these races is none of the candidates either on the Republican or Democratic side really did a blast in terms of media and in terms of campaigning. They were pretty low-key campaigns, and they're buried way down on the ballot. You had a lot of people get there and often not know who these candidates were, so you tend to see things a little more fragmented.
For instance Matt Salazar on the Democratic side did not run much of a campaign, yet he received about 16 percent of the vote. On the Republican side you had Warren Howell ran a good campaign there at the end, some targeted direct mail as well as text messaging, and so it looks like he'll barely narrow out, defeat, beat out Marty Lancton for a spot in the runoff. Both of them will go into runoffs. That will probably be the focal point here in Houston in terms of in addition to these congressional races, these Republican and Democratic runoffs.