Local voters return two lawmakers to office

Bell County Sheriff Eddy Lange staved off two opponents in the Republican Primary, earning 55.14 percent of the votes while Constable Rolly Correa defeated former Constable Roger Laird in the Precinct 2 race on March 1.

Neither Lange nor Correa will have a Democrat opponent in November.

Shay Luedecke will be the new County Tax Assessor-Collector after winning the Republican primary with 62.63% of the vote.

Ted Cruz had a good night in his home state, earning 30 delegates in his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination, tallying more than 1.2 million votes. Donald Trump followed with 752,334 votes for 17 delegates. Meanwhile on the Democrat side, Hillary Clinton earned 32 delegates with 918,491 votes to Bernie Sanders’ 16 delegates with 467,641 votes.

U.S. Rep. John Carter defeated Mike Sweeney in the Republican Primary and will face Democrat challenger Mike Clark in November.

Scott Cosper and Austin Ruiz will face each other in a run-off to be the Republican nominee for the State Representative, District 54. Cosper led with 42.60 percent of the vote and Ruiz had 39.55 percent. The winner will face Democrat Sandra Blankenship in November.

Susan King and Dawn Buckingham will face off in a runoff for the Republican nominee for State Senator, District 4. The winner will face Democrat Virginia ‘Jennie Lou’ Leeder in November.

At the state level, there will be run-offs for the Republicans for Judge Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 2 between Ray Wheless and Mary Lou Keel; Judge Court of Criminal Appeals Place 5 between Scott Walker and Brent Webster and for Railroad Commissioner between Gary Gates and Wayne Christian.

The only run-off election for Bell County Democrats is in the Railroad Commissioner race where Cody Garrett and Grady Yarbrough will face each other.

Early voting in the primary run-offs will be May 16-20 with the election day voting on May 24. The last day to register to vote in the primary run-offs in April 24.