A Republican House primary runoff election in Texas between a candidate backed by President Trump and another supported by Sen. Ted Cruz remains too close to call one day after the contest.
In the race for the GOP nomination in Texas’ 23rd Congressional District – where Republican Rep. Will Hurd is retiring – Navy veteran Tony Gonzales leads Air Force veteran Raul Reyes by just seven votes out of 24,685 cast, with all polling locations reporting, according to unofficial results.
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Gonzales declared victory on Twitter early Wednesday.
But Reyes said he wasn’t conceding and was waiting for mailed-in ballots, overseas military ballots, and provisional ballots to be counted.
Two weeks ago, as early voting got underway, Reyes was endorsed by Cruz, the conservative senator who battled Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries. Three days later, the president supported Gonzales, who’s also backed by Hurd and House GOP leaders.
The president recorded a robocall for Gonzales that was pushed out on the eve of the runoff — and that same day he held a tele-town hall with the candidate.
The eventual losing candidate will likely be in a position to request a recount. State law allows the losing candidate to ask for a recount if their margin is smaller than 10 percent of the votes received by the winning candidate.
The district – which stretches along the border with Mexico from just outside El Paso in the western edge of the state – is one of the Democrats’ best pick-up opportunities this November. Democratic nominee Gina Ortiz Jones narrowly lost to Hurd in 2018.
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