Both Democrat and Republican primary runoffs are finalized across the state of Texas. In Terry County, there was only one primary runoff for the Terry County Commissioner Precinct 1 Republican race. Candidates Myron Bovkoon and JR Cudd made it to the runoff round because neither had 50% plus one vote in the regular primary on March 5, 2024. In the March Primary Precinct 1 Commissioner race, Bovkoon, Cudd, and Manuel Macias vied for this position. There were 613 total votes cast in the March 5, 2024, Primary with Bovkoon receiving the plurality of votes of 300 or 48.94%, JR Cudd coming in second with 186 votes or 30.34% and Macias getting 127 votes or 20.27%.
In the runoff election, Bovkoon received 24 votes from ballots by mail (BBM) and Cudd received four votes from BBM. In the early voting results, Bovkoon brought in 160 votes to Cudd’s 93 votes bringing the early voting and BBM totals to 181 for Bovkoon and 97 for Cudd. On Election Day, Tuesday, May 28, 2024, there were 80 total votes meaning Bovkoon already won the race since the 80 Election Day votes were not enough to tie the early voting and BBM. Of the 80 Election Day votes, Bovkoon had 52 votes bringing his total votes to 233. Cudd had 28 votes from Election Day bringing his total votes to 125. Bovkoon garnered 65% of the votes and had a 46.35% margin of victory.
Since no Democrat filed to run in the Terry County Precinct 1 Commissioner’s race, Bovkoon will have an uncontested race in the November General Election, which will take place on November 5, 2024. This makes Bovkoon the Precinct 1 Commissioner Elect and will take the oath of office on January 1, 2025.
Moving on to the General Election, there will be one local contested race for Terry County Commissioner Precinct 3 between Republican Incumbent Martin LeFevere and Democrat Candidate Shorty Martinez. In the 2020 Primaries, Democrat Shorty Martinez voted in the Republican Primary. By Martinez voting in the Republican Primary, he violated Texas Election law Sec. 162.015. RESTRICTIONS ON CANDIDACY IN GENERAL ELECTION BY CANDIDATE OR VOTER IN PRIMARY. This caused Martinez to be ineligible for the 2020 General Election. In 2022, Martinez filed as a Democrat to run in the Terry County Precinct 4 Commissioners race going up against Republican and Incumbent Ernesto Elizardo. Martinez was unsuccessful losing 109 votes to 491 for Elizardo. Martinez moved back into Precinct 3 and filed as Democrat for the Precinct 3 Commissioners race.
There were two other noteworthy runoff elections in the state of Texas. One was between Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan and Orange County Republican Party chairman David Covey. According to many political pundits, Phelan was the top electoral target from the backing of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and former Texas Republican Party Chairman Matt Rinaldi. Phelan won the runoff with 12,813 votes to Covey’s 12447 votes, which was 50.72% to 49.28% win. If Phelan had lost the runoff, he would’ve been the first Texas House speaker to lose a primary in 52 years.
The other noteworthy runoff election was the US House District 23 between Incumbent Tony Gonzales and gun rights activist Brandon Herrera. District 23 is the largest land-wise US House seat in Texas, spanning from western Bexar County (San Antonio) up to the northwest to Winkler County (Kermit), over west to El Paso County, and back southeast to La Salle County which is north of Laredo, or around 56,500 square miles. Gonzales was able to garner 50.69% of the vote whereas Herrera received 49.31% a difference of 407 votes.
