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Jeremy Hendricks Credit: Brant Bingamon<\/p>\nSome big-name musicians, when they\u2019ve got a packed show, don\u2019t let anyone in the club see them until it\u2019s time to go out and play. It makes their entrance more dramatic. Maybe that\u2019s what was going on with Samantha Lopez-Resendez at the Pflugerville Democrats watch party on Tuesday night. Lopez-Resendez was the front-runner in a six-person race to succeed James Talarico in Texas House District 50. It was 8:30pm, early voting numbers were expected to drop any minute, and no one had seen her yet.<\/p>\n
Claire Reynolds and the Pflugerville Dems had gotten to the election party at 7, sitting at a long table with pizzas and beers, cellphones in hand. For over an hour, Reynolds waited to see the first voting numbers in U.S. House of Representatives District 11, a conservative district in West Texas which Republicans redistricted last year to include Pflugerville. Reynolds had no money for polls, so she didn\u2019t know how she would fare against her opponent, Pete Ruiz, an Odessa native endorsed by the Chronicle.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reynolds said the endorsement had felt like a punch to the gut, since she had assumed the Chronicle always endorsed the more progressive candidate. She talked about campaigning in the West Texas towns of San Angelo, Midland, and Odessa. \u201cI have learned that if you are a Democrat in a red rural district, you are a badass,\u201d Reynolds said. \u201cI\u2019ve been meeting a lot of super young people, like college students at Angelo State, and my goal is to make them feel seen and heard and to let them know that there are Democratic candidates in their area that represent their values. My goal is just to stay true to those values and, win or lose, I\u2019ll be able to sleep at night.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have learned that if you are a Democrat in a red rural district, you are a badass.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire Reynolds<\/p>\n
The Chronicle headed next to the watch party of Lopez-Resendez\u2019s opponent, Jeremy Hendricks, held at La Palapa restaurant on Highway 290. Like the Pflugerville Democrats, Hendricks\u2019 supporters sat at a pair of long tables, waiting for the early voting numbers to be announced. Hendricks said he would consider the race a success if he were able to squeak into a runoff with Lopez-Resendez. \u201cIf we make it to a runoff, we\u2019re confident that we\u2019ll win,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019re happy. We\u2019re very proud of the work we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Hendricks Credit: Brant Bingamon<\/p>\n
Hendricks spoke about the sense of hope that pervaded election day and about Taylor Rehmet, a Democratic labor leader from Fort Worth, who unexpectedly won a Texas Senate special election in January and was recently sworn in on the floor of the Senate. \u201cTo be on the floor with labor, with every minority community, with everybody locking arms and celebrating his swearing in, it just gave me such hope for the power of what could happen,\u201d Hendricks said. \u201cWe\u2019ve never been in that building before, where we felt like that.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back at the Pflugerville Democrats party, the voting numbers were coming in. It was clear Reynolds would beat Pete Ruiz handily. Samantha Lopez-Resendez appeared, ebullient and, she admitted, extremely nervous. She said she had spoken to her boss, Texas House Rep. Donna Howard, who had helped her calm down. \u201cShe said, \u2018How are you feeling? Are you feeling balanced? Are you feeling aligned?\u2019 And I just told her, \u2018I\u2019ve never felt more in alignment with my purpose in my life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Soon, the numbers showed that Lopez-Resendez would win enough votes to avoid a runoff with Hendricks. She will, like James Talarico before her, begin serving District 50 at a very young age \u2013 30, in her case. She said she knew when she got hired as one of Howard\u2019s assistants six years ago that she wanted to run for office herself one day.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, I always thought it would be in my 40s,\u201d Lopez-Resendez said. \u201cAnd I thought I would have had children by then. And I thought it would be for school board. But life turns out very differently, and when Rep. Talarico announced for U.S. Senate, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m young, I don\u2019t have children, I have the capacity to do this work, I love this work, and I am completely committed to it.\u2019 So I said, \u2018It\u2019s time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\tState and local results come into focus\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tFormer chief of staff for previous rep, Sethi wins the Democratic primary\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tThe two will run off to represent Central Austin\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tPrecinct 4 headed to a runoff as Brigid Shea wins again in Precinct 2\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\tAfter voting site confusion, Texas House rep comes out on top in the U.S. Senate Democratic primary\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n