Political expert speaks on primary election results in Texas

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Last night's primary election results will now lead to several Republican and Democratic seats going to runoff elections on May 26.

Dr. Amber Archuleta-Lucero, an Associate Professor of Government at El Paso Community College, says what local voters know from this election is that money matters, as most of the candidates going to runoff elections have spent huge amounts of money, and they will continue to spend ahead of the runoffs and the midterm elections in November.

"Incumbent U.S. Senator, John Cornyn is going up against an extremely strong challenger, Attorney General Paxton, their campaign is going to have to be very focused not only on the messaging of what you're going to say, but perhaps honing in on the base while at the same time attracting new voters," Dr. Archuleta-Lucero said. "So that's a very fine balance because we have a tremendous amount of respect for legacy media, however, our newest voters, our Gen Zers are looking to unorthodox and nontraditional forms of media; I think it's a lot of different factors combined that the Cornyn campaign will have to focus upon for the November election."

For Professor Archuleta-Lucero, Texas A.G. Paxton and U.S. Senator John Cornyn are likely seeking President Trump's endorsement since both are close to him, and also looking for opportunities to raise campaign funds outside Texas.

"I think we can expect as voters, more ads, more spending on ads and likely more negative campaigning because they need to get their message across, we know who they are, but now they need to highlight and make visible to the voter those differences that are important and speaking to the voter about those differences in an articulate way," Dr. Archuleta-Lucero said. "When you look at 254 counties, what one is looking at is they're (candidates) definitely looking for red and blue, but they're looking at how deep and how dark is the red and blue, since Texas is a vert red state; however, there are deep pockets of blue within this state."

"I think what's important to notice is that the ever changing demographics within that state, the newest voters in this state who are registering to vote and who are participating, we saw an increase in those numbers, while at the same time, ensuring that one remembers how deeply red the state is."

Local government and politics experts say that State Rep. James Talarico saw a rise in voter turnout and campaign fundraising ahead of last night's primary, making him a strong contender in the U.S. Senate race.

"Although we don't want to predict what'll happen, I think looking historically at what's happened and what's happening and then out maybe looking and considering what Mr. Talarico brings to the state is going to be extremely interesting to watch," Dr. Archuleta-Lucero added. "For Mr. Talarico, in terms of what that looks like for him in November, the amount of money he needs to raise has to continue at those amounts, this is this is an important race, all races are important, but this race is important as well."

Incumbent U.S. Representative for Texas District 23, Tony Gonzales, will face Brandon Herrera in the Republican runoff.

"The unique thing here in the Texas 23rd is you have an incumbent who is for the most part aligned with a lot of the president's agenda and at the same time, you have a very known YouTube personality, very well known outside of Texas," Dr. Archuleta-Lucero said. "Two platforms that are very, sort of very different from each other, although they're from the same political party, if that makes sense. So I think what might have to happen here in terms of Mr. Gonzales going forth, he is going to have to be from like right now, starting today, going out and talking to voters personally, well at the same time messaging voters who happen to be younger, who were not so much going to be inclined to look at traditional media."

Texas Governor Greg Abbott secured 82% of the votes in the Republican primary for governor, where he will now face State Rep. Gina Hinojosa.

"Governor Abbott came out last night with a huge win yet again, you're talking about 82%, that's that alone is a message, so he has a very strong base, people that are primary voters are very solid voters, they're they're going to be voters that you can likely count on in, in other in other elections; Gov. Abbott has those factors helping him." "In addition, State Rep. Hinojosa, I think has to consider perhaps traditionally Republican areas, counties and going to talk to those voters," Dr. Archuleta-Lucero added.

"It might be an uphill battle (the Governor's race) as I mentioned, the governor is a very popular governor in this state, he's been governor since 2015, so he's carried many elections and I think the governor will platform some of his alignment with President Trump, just in terms of the border itself, Operation Lone Star, those will be his strengths; I think he'll continue to campaign on those," she added.