Pioneering Winners, Low Voter Turnout Mark the Runoffs

In Friday’s episode of Just This, Rick and I discuss several high-profile runoff election races this week that most impact San Antonio, including those for U.S. Congressional Districts 21 and 23; the contest to replace longtime Texas House Speaker Joe Straus of San Antonio (in Texas House District 121); and the very low voter turnout in them all. In the congressional races, we examine whether gender representation gains being touted nationally will manifest locally next fall in the District 23 race. Iraq veteran and former defense intelligence officer Gina Ortiz Jones trounced her Democratic rival, former teacher Rick Treviño, to earn the right to challenge incumbent U.S. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Helotes). We also look at an interesting race shaping up in Congressional District 21 to replace U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-San Antonio), who has long represented the San Antonio-to-Austin district but saw his support eroding before announcing his retirement. In that race, tech entrepreneur and military veteran Joseph Kopser, a Democrat, will face off with conservative Republican Chip Roy, a protégé and former senior staffer of several top Texas Republicans including U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.