EL PASO, Tx., March 4, 2026: El Paso Democratic voters sent two county commissioner incumbents home yesterday choosing two newcomers to replace them at the county. In an upset, two newcomers, Annette Griego running for Precinct 4 county commissioner and Miguel “Mike” Teran running for Precinct 2 county commissioner defeated their incumbents. Griego unseated Sergio Coronado with 60% of the vote and Teran defeated David Stout with 53% of the vote.
Griego will face Leo Arcos and Teran will face Matt Sistrunk in the November ballot.
In the county judge race, incumbent Ricardo Samaneigo will face Minerva Torres Shelton in the November ballot after Torres-Shelton defeated Guadalupe “Lupe” Giner with 62% of the vote.
For the Justice of the Peace, Precinct 1 race Denise Butterworth will face Octavio Dominguez in a runoff election. For Precinct 2, incumbent Brian J. Haggerty was forced into a runoff by challenger Christie Saiz.
For Precinct 6, Place 1, the runoff election is between incumbent Ruben Lujan and challenger Dora H. Aguirre. For Place two, challenger Rosalie “Rosie” Dominguez forced incumbent Enedina “Nina” Serna into a runoff election.
The contentious race between incumbent Lucilla “Lucy” Najera and challenger Dora Oaxaca Rivera will end in the runoff after neither mustered enough votes to win the seat.
The runoff election is scheduled for May 26.
There are no Justice of the Peace candidates on the Republican ticket ensuring that the Democrats winning their runoff seats will take the seat.
Poll Issues
Confusion and technical glitches affected Austin, Dallas and El Paso voters yesterday. Republicans in Dallas and Williamson counties ordered that voters vote only in their assigned polling stations. The late change in voting locations, where voters expected they could vote at any polling station, led many voters to be sent away to their voting station without casting their ballot where they were hoping to vote. Williamson County covers part of Austin. Democrats objected to the confusion and a judge ordered that the polling stations in parts of Austin and Dallas be open until 9pm. The Texas Supreme Court stayed the order and said that ballots cast by voters who were not in line by the original cutoff time of 7:00pm will have their votes rejected.
It is unclear of the Texas Supreme Court’s stay will remain intact after challenges are filed in court.
Austin and Dallas voters were not the only Texas voters experiencing voting problems yesterday. El Paso voters faced delays in casting their ballots yesterday morning after technical problems with the voter check-in machines forced polling stations to manually check in voters at several polling locations. However, the ballot machines were not affected, and voters could still cast their ballots after being manually checked in. El Paso voters could cast ballots at any polling station. By early afternoon, the problems were resolved and voting returned to normal. However, El Paso Judge Lyda Ness Garcia issued a temporary injunction allowing El Paso voters to cast provisional ballots until 8:00pm.
Around The State
El Paso Democratic voters overwhelmingly selected James Talarico over Jasmine Crockett for the U.S. Senate race. Talarico defeated Crockett at the state level with almost 60% of the vote. He will face the winner of the Republican runoff between incumbent John Cornyn and challenger Ken Paxton. El Paso Republicans overwhelmingly selected Cornyn over Paxton. Across the state, the race between them was close with Cornyn edging Paxton’s challenge by about 1% of the vote.
For the congressional seat 23, incumbent Tony Gonzales was forced into a runoff by challenger Brandon Herrera. Gonzales’ campaign has suffered setbacks with revelations that he had an affair with a former staffer that later committed suicide. El Paso Republican voters mirrored the rest of Texas between Gonzales and Herrera.
The winner will face Katy Padilla Stout in November. El Paso voters slightly preferred her over Santos Limon, but Texas Democratic voters selected Padilla Stout.
For Texas governor, it will be Democrat challenger Gina Hinojosa against Republican incumbent Greg Abbott. El Paso Democrats were not as enthused with Hinojosa, giving her only 48% of the vote, splitting their votes with Angela “Tia Angie” Villescaz and Patricia Abrego.
Republicans Put Convicted Felon into Runoff
El Paso Republican voters chose a former Border Patrol agent, Adam Bauman, to faceoff against a convicted felon, Manny Barraza in the May 26 runoff election to choose who they want on the Republican ticket in the November ballot against incumbent Veronica Escobar for the District 16 congressional seat. There were seven Republicans vying for that spot.
Barraza was convicted in 2010 for trading sexual favors in his courtroom for favorable court rulings. The Texas Bar debarred him in 2012. He served five years in federal prison.
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