MJ Hegar Wins TX Democratic Primary Senate Runoff

Mary "MJ" Hegar has won the Democratic primary runoff election for U.S. Senate and will face longtime incumbent GOP Sen. John Cornyn in November.

Voters went to the polling booth as Texas sees a record surge in coronavirus infections, becoming one of the country and the world's virus hot zones.

Last week was the deadliest of the pandemic for Texas, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has warned that the infection numbers will likely get even worse. Abbott did not include polling places in his recent statewide mask order, and unlike many states, Texas has fought efforts to expand mail-in balloting during the pandemic. More than 1 million ballots were cast in early voting — higher than most primary runoffs in recent years — but only a fraction of the state's 16 million registered voters.

On the ballot Tuesday was Hegar, 44, a military veteran who served as a pilot in the Air Force, and Royce West, 67, a Texas State Senator from Dallas. According to The Texas Tribune, as early voting began in the runoff, the protests over the death of George Floyd and police brutality in the U.S. took up considerable space in the race with West aiming to use the mood and momentum to beat out Hegar, who is seen as the favorite in the race.

The latest results from the Texas Secretary of State's Office show Hegar came away with 498,180 votes while West had 457,555 votes with 100 percent of polling places reporting.

In the March primary, Hegar came away with 22 percent of the vote while West came in second with 14 percent of the vote. The two candidates faced off in a debate in early June before the primary runoff, discussing a variety of topics including the coronavirus pandemic, police brutality and immigration.

Patch will update this page as the results begin to come in. Check back here for the latest.

The Tribune notes that Hegar is also backed by big Democratic groups like EMILY's List and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and has outspent West in the race. West, however, has received endorsements from influential Texas papers, including The Dallas Morning News, The Houston Chronicle and The Fort Worth Star Telegram. On his campaign website, West also boasts endorsements from federal and state election officials as well as labor unions and local Democratic groups.

Hegar also has a slew of endorsements from unions as well as local and national Democratic groups and clubs.

Reporting and writing from The Associated Press was used in this report.