Election results: How Texas voted in the 2024 primary
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization dedicated to helping you navigate Texas policy and politics — including the 2024 elections. Here are the results from the Texas 2024 primary election on March 5.
Texas voters chose party nominees for statewide seats, including U.S. Senate and district-based congressional and legislative seats. Those nominees will face off in the general election in November. If no candidate in a primary election received a majority of the vote, the top two vote-getters will go head-to-head in a runoff in May.
What you should know:
- President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump won their Texas primaries, propelling them closer to a rematch in the November presidential election.
- U.S. Rep. Colin Allred will face Sen. Ted Cruz in November.
- Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan faces a runoff against a hardline conservative challenger.
- The Texas Tribune’s “We the Texans” initiative features stories, guides and public events exploring how democracy is experienced and challenged in Texas.
How to read these results
If you share your address below, we’ll personalize the results for you by showing the races you get to vote in. (Don’t worry: We don’t store your information.)
President
Texas held its primary on Super Tuesday and was an important state for both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in 2024. There were 161 Republican delegates with 150 up for grabs (the remaining 11 were allocated by the state GOP). Former President Donald Trump handedly won the Republican presidential primary in Texas and was awarded all 161 delegates. Texas followed Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina on the primary calendar.
There were a total of 244 delegates up for grabs in the Texas Democratic presidential primary. President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second term as president of the United States, easily won the primary and was awarded all 244 delegates.
U.S. Senate
U.S. Rep. Colin Allred will challenge Sen. Ted Cruz in November after defeating a crowded field of Democrats. Allred easily prevailed over state Sen. Roland Gutierrez of San Antonio, who was also vying for the nomination.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is seeking a third term and beat two other candidates in the Republican primary. U.S. senators serve six-year terms.
U.S. House
Texas has 38 congressional seats, and all are up for election this year, with most incumbents running again. There are three open seats. Republicans were vying to replace U.S. Rep. Kay Granger in District 12 and U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess in District 26, both of whom are not seeking reelection. Meanwhile, Democrats competed to succeed U.S. Rep. Colin Allred in District 32. Allred is running for U.S. Senate.
Railroad Commissioner
In Texas, the Railroad Commission regulates the oil and gas industry. Members of the three-person board are elected statewide. One seat is up for election in 2024.
State Board of Education
There are 15 districts within the State Board of Education, which sets curriculum and chooses textbooks for Texas public schools. Only 7 are up for election this year. One incumbent in those races, Melissa Ortega in District 1, decided not to seek reelection.
Texas Supreme Court
The Texas Supreme Court, the state’s highest civil court, has nine justices. Three of the nine seats on the Supreme Court are up for election in 2024. Justices are elected statewide, and Republicans currently hold all the seats.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is the state’s highest criminal court. The nine members are elected statewide and are currently all Republicans. Attorney General Ken Paxton worked to unseat the three Republican judges up for reelection this year, in response to a 2021 ruling by the court that struck down Paxton’s ability to unilaterally prosecute voter fraud. All three of those judges lost their primaries.
Texas Senate
In the 31-member Texas Senate, only 15 seats are up for election in 2024.
Texas House
There are 150 members of the Texas House. Each state representative serves a two-year term.
This election year, Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking revenge against Republicans who voted to impeach him by endorsing their primary challengers. Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is also working to unseat the House Republicans who voted against school vouchers, one of Abbott’s top legislative priorities in 2023. Nine House Republicans whose challengers were endorsed by either Abbott or Paxton outright lost, while eight were forced into runoffs, including House Speaker Dade Phelan.
What we’re seeing
Turnout in primary midterm elections has historically been low, with less than a quarter of registered voters casting ballots most years. The latest turnout data published by the Texas secretary of state shows that turnout was lower compared to 2020, with Republican voter turnout far outpacing Democratic turnout.
Additionally, domestic mail-in ballots turned in and postmarked by election day were counted if the county received it by 5 p.m. on March 6. Mail-in ballots from military and overseas voters had to be postmarked by election day and were accepted if they were received by March 11 . In close races, mail-in votes could determine the winner, which can delay race calling. The certification of final election results was completed by March 17 and released by the Secretary of State on March 25.
The Texas Tribune’s election data was provided by The Associated Press, which gathers voting information from the secretary of state’s office, county election sites and stringers on the ground in Texas. The AP called winners and provided estimates on how many votes were left to be counted.
About the data
Election results data provided by The Associated Press.
Candidate information from the Texas secretary of state’s office, the Texas Democratic Party, the Republican Party of Texas and Texas Tribune research.
County shapes and city locations provided by the U.S. Census Bureau. Road lines provided by Natural Earth.
Contributions by Emily Albracht and Reagan Hicks.
Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state, Theresa Boisseau, Santos Limon, Sylvia R. Garcia, Stuart Whitlow, Julie Johnson, Dayna Steele, Jan McDowell, Katherine Culbert, Pam Little, Merrie Fox, Gary VanDeaver, Jill Dutton, Kyle Biedermann, Erin Shank, Michelle Beckley, Walter Coppage, Stan Lambert, Norma Chávez, Yvonne Davis, Donna Howard, Terry Canales, Senfronia Thompson, Brooks Landgraf, Vikki Goodwin and Todd Hunter have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a complete list of them here.