Live updates: Primary runoffs underway in key Texas races, polls close at 7 p.m.

Voters will settle key runoffs in Texas Tuesday as Republicans and Democrats cast ballots in congressional, statewide and county races, including a closely watched showdown for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

Winners will advance to November’s general election, which could reshape power and elevate the next generation of leaders in Texas politics. 

Voters must be in line by 7 p.m. Tuesday to vote in person. Election results will be posted live at dallasnews.com. 

In a marquee U.S. Senate runoff, current Sen. John Cornyn and state Attorney General Ken Paxton are facing off for the Republican nomination in one of the state’s most contentious campaigns. The winner will advance to face Democrat James Talarico in November. 

Voters are also deciding between state Sen. Mayes Middleton of Galveston and U.S. Rep. Chip Roy of Austin for the Republican nomination for attorney general to replace Paxton, and Democrats are choosing between state Sen. Nathan Johnson of Dallas and former Galveston Mayor Joe Jaworski.

In the North Texas Democratic congressional runoff, U.S. Rep. Julie Johnson is facing a challenge from former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.

Here are live updates from the polls as the last ballots are cast. 

A slow stream of voters trickled into The Father’s Church on Abrams Road after polls opened on Tuesday, but the calm was a relief to the election workers inside.

There were no confused voters, no clerks having to send them to another location to cast their ballots, no frustration in the air.

“It’s been quiet, thank goodness,” said Republican election Judge Lila Farmer.

Voting unfolded slowly but smoothly in Dallas County’s runoff on Tuesday, a change from the chaos that took place during the March 3 primary election. After the county Republican Party forced a switch to precinct-based voting, thousands of confused voters from both parties, accustomed to the vote-anywhere system, were turned away from polls and redirected to their neighborhood voting sites.

Citing a fear of being sued for voter disenfranchisement, former GOP Chair Allen West then amended the party’s contract to return to countywide voting for the runoff where residents can cast a ballot at any vote center regardless of address.  

Still, the runoff remained a non-joint election, meaning Democrats and Republicans were required to announce their affiliation by using separate check-in tables, voting machines and election workers within the same locations.

Voters must choose either the Republican or Democratic runoff. Those who voted in a party’s March primary must stay with that party in the runoff. Those who skipped the March primary can participate in either runoff.

— Tracey McManus 

President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Paxton scrambled the final days of Texas’ Republican Senate runoff. Some allies of the attorney general acted as if the endorsement decided the race in Paxton’s favor, while others warned it should not be mistaken for actual votes. 

Cornyn, meanwhile, vowed to press on, arguing Texans alone would decide the race.

The stakes are especially high in a matchup in which early voting has collapsed from March primary levels, leaving both sides trying to maximize turnout after Trump’s late intervention.

State Sen. Angela Paxton urged Republicans to vote in Tuesday’s runoff but stopped short of endorsing anyone in the Senate race featuring the attorney general, her estranged husband. Angela Paxton has filed for divorce from Ken Paxton, accusing him of adultery.

— Joseph Morton

At Fretz Park Branch Library in Far North Dallas, Jerry Bissey, 76, cast a ballot for Cornyn in the closely-watched Senate runoff against Paxton.

The decision was tough for Bissey, who said he liked that Paxton’s policy positions were more conservative than Cornyn’s.

“He doesn’t side with Trump nearly enough,” Bissey said of Cornyn.

His choice ultimately came down to the corruption allegations against Paxton and the attorney general’s 2023 impeachment.

Melanie Wright, 75, cast her ballot for Paxton and said she would have voted for him even if President Trump hadn’t endorsed him. Wright said that the corruption allegations that led to Paxton’s 2023 impeachment by the Texas House didn’t influence her vote because she said the candidate was “vindicated” when the Senate acquitted him.

“I was tired of John Cornyn,” Wright said at Fretz Park Branch Library. “He’s been living on his laurels a long time.”

She said she appreciated that Paxton has been an “aggressive” attorney general, filing lawsuits against big companies. Paxton’s extramarital affair, which Cornyn’s campaign has highlighted in attack ads, didn’t affect Wright’s support either.

“We’re not electing a preacher,” she said. 

— Angela Mathew  

This story is developing and will be updated. 

Staff writers Karen Brooks Harper and Aarón Torres contributed to this report.