Trump, Biden emerge as winners in Texas primaries

AUSTIN — Incumbent President Donald J. Trump, who received 94% of the vote in the Lone Star State’s Republican primary election, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who received 34.5% of the vote in the Democratic primary, were their parties’ top vote-getters on March 3, Super Tuesday.

Biden’s closest rival was Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who received 30% of the Democratic vote. Sanders was followed by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 14.4%, and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, 11.4%.

Overall voter turnout figures posted by the Tex-as Secretary of State’s Elections Division show 4,084,431 of the state’s 16,211,198 registered voters cast a ballot, slightly more than 25% of total registered voters. That’s a higher participation rate than in the 2016 Super Tuesday vote. Then, 3,289,218 Texans cast a ballot or 23% of the 14,238,436 voters who were registered at the time.

In a major down-ballot race, state Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, and former Air Force helicopter pilot M.J. Hegar, will face each other in a May 26 Democratic primary runoff. The winner will run against long-term incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican, in the Nov. 3 general election.

Complete election results are available at the Texas Secretary of State’s website, sos.texas.gov.

Ed Sterling the Director of Member Services for the Texas Press Association.