Texas incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott thanks his supporters for his reelection as Texas governor Tuesday night at Quinta Mazatlán in McAllen. Republican Abbott defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke and won a third term in office. Fatima Gamez Lopez/The Rider Photos
Unofficial results for county, state and federal general election races have been released in Hidalgo County, including the highly contested Congressional District 15 seat.
With 100% of 293 precincts reporting in the U.S. Representative District 15 contest, Republican Monica De La Cruz defeated Democrat Michelle Vallejo with 80,869 votes to Vallejo’s 67,913, according to the Texas Secretary of State website.
In Hidalgo County, Vallejo outpaced De La Cruz by a vote of 51,312 to 39,604, unofficial results showed.
Congressional District 15 encompasses all of Brooks, Duval, Jim Hogg, Karnes and Live Oak counties as well as large parts of Hidalgo and Guadalupe counties and a small portion of Wilson County.
In the race for U.S. Representative District 34 in Hidalgo County, Democrat Vicente Gonzalez garnered 27,020 votes to Republican Mayra Flores’ 17,969.
Districtwide, with 100% of 232 precincts reporting, Gonzalez led with 70,759 votes, or 52.71%, to Flores’ 59,404. Gonzalez currently serves as U.S. District 15 representative; however, due to redistricting, he ran for the District 34 seat.
Incumbent Republican Gov. Greg Abbott defeated Democratic challenger Beto O’Rourke with 3,987,280 votes, or 55.72%, with O’Rourke garnering 3,075,572 votes, or 42.98%.
In Hidalgo County, unofficial results show O’Rourke garnered 82,513 votes compared to Abbott’s 56,728 votes.
Abbott attended his Election Night party at Quinta Mazatlán in McAllen Tuesday night and was met with applause from his supporters. Abbott thanked his campaign team, supporters and reinforced the principles that his platform ran on.
“All of you inspired me and all of you propelled me to win, which has now become a resounding victory for my reelection,” Abbott said during the watch party.
Abbott also told his supporters he will cut property taxes, protect the oil and gas production business in Texas from President Joe Biden, “escalate the battle” against fentanyl crossing the border and classify Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
In the race for Texas attorney general, Democrat Rochelle Mercedes Garza led in Hidalgo County with 80,338 votes. Incumbent Republican Ken Paxton garnered 53,163 votes; and Libertarian Mark Ash, 2,633.
Statewide, however, Paxton won reelection with 3,819,720 votes, or 54.32%. Garza garnered 3,013,534 votes.
For lieutenant governor of Texas, Democrat Mike Collier led in the county with 76,459 votes, followed by Republican incumbent Dan Patrick with 55,926 votes and Libertarian Shanna Steele with 4,005.
Statewide, Patrick leads with 3,532,844 votes, with Collier following behind at 2,734,142 votes and Steele with 159,520.
In the race for District 20 state senator, Democratic incumbent Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa won reelection, garnering 101,989 votes compared to Republican challenger Westley Wright’s 77,446.
For state senator District 27, Democrat Morgan LaMantia narrowly defeated Republican candidate Adam Hinojosa by a vote of 87,860 votes to 87,291.
District 35 state Rep. Oscar Longoria, a Democrat, won reelection, garnering 15,543 votes districtwide compared to Republican challenger Oscar Rosa’s 8,683.
In local elections, long-time City of Edinburg Municipal Judge Toribio “Terry” Palacios, a Democrat, won the race for Hidalgo County criminal district attorney with 83,834 votes against Republican Juan Tijerina, who garnered 54,198 votes.
For Hidalgo County judge, Democratic incumbent Ricardo “Richard” F. Cortez reclaimed his position, garnering 86,704 votes to Republican Esmeralda Flores’ 50,550.
As of Oct. 21, there were 417,451 registered voters in Hidalgo County, according to the county’s Elections Department website. During the early voting period from Oct. 24 to Nov. 4, 103,997 county voters cast ballots. There were 99,267 votes cast in person and 4,730 by mail. In the 2020 General Election, early voting in Hidalgo County saw a total of 188,377 votes.
Hilda Salinas, interim Hidalgo County Elections Department administrator, told The Rider in an interview via Zoom the differences in early voting numbers can be attributed to a shorter early voting period and the presidential election in 2020.
“[A presidential election] does drive more voters out to the polls,” Salinas said.
With about 800 people working for the Hidalgo County Elections department on Election Day, according to the interim administrator, polling locations were open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Election Day saw a total 39,456 ballots cast in Hidalgo County.
With the clock ticking at 7 p.m., some polling locations in Hidalgo County had a wait time of 30 minutes to two hours.
Weslaco resident Hector Monita decided to vote right after work in Edinburg and chose the UTRGV polling location at the Student Academic Center on the Edinburg campus, which experienced about a 30- to 40-minute wait time at around 6 p.m.
“I wanted to get in on time, so I figured that the university would have a little bit of a faster process,” Monita said.
For complete election results, visit https://results.enr.clarityelections.com/TX/Hidalgo/115902/web.307039/#/summary and https://results.texas-election.com/races.
