A political newcomer and a veteran state representative, both Republicans, will head to a runoff election on Dec. 19 to decide who will fill the District 30 seat in the Texas Senate.

Early voting will begin Dec. 9 to elect Shelley Luther or Drew Springer to the vacant seat.

Voters cast ballots Tuesday, Sept. 29, in a special election for the state senate post that became vacant when Pat Fallon resigned to run for the Texas District 4 post in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Out of a 6-candidatefield of five Republicans and one Democrat, 4-term state Rep. Springer of Muenster and Luther of Pilot Point, a Dallas salon owner who was jailed briefly for defying a state order that closed salons in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, wound up in a virtual dead heat.

Each of the frontrunners received a little more than 31 percent of the vote.  A candidate would have had to top 50 percent to avoid a runoff.

Luther received a slight edge with 22,135 votes (32.17 percent) over the district to 21,971 (31.93 percent) cast for Springer.  A total of 68,807 votes were recorded throughout the 14 counties in the district.

The state senate district includes a sliver of Collin County, including the cities of Princeton, Farmersville, and part of Wylie.

In Collin County, Luther received 3,056 votes and Springer received 1,825 out of a total of 8,963 votes cast.

Other district wide vote totals were Democratic hopeful Jacob Minter, 14,592; Christ Watts, 4,284; Craig Carter, 3,413; and Andy Hopper, 2,432.

The runoff will allow the seat to be filled before the Texas Legislature convenes in January 2021 for its biennial session.

For more stories like this, see the Nov. 18 issue or subscribe online.

From Staff Reports • [email protected]