Candidates face off in South Texas special election to replace Democratic U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela [View all]

Four candidates — two Democrats and two Republicans — are facing off Tuesday night in a special election for a congressional seat in South Texas.

The special election in the 34th District was triggered by U.S. Rep. Filemon Vela’s decision to resign in March to work for the lobbying firm Akin Gump. The Brownsville Democrat had already announced he was not seeking reelection.

The main GOP candidate, Mayra Flores, and her allies have spent nearly $1 million on an aggressive TV ad campaign. Republicans are trying to flip the seat to give them an edge in the November race for Vela’s open seat. Whoever wins the special election race will hold it only until January.

Flores outraised her toughest Democratic competition, Harlingen attorney Dan Sanchez, by 16 to 1 on the only major campaign finance report of the special election. The special election could go to a late-summer runoff given the presence of two other, lesser-known candidates on the ballot, Democrat Rene Coronado and Republican Juana “Janie” Cantu-Cabrera.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/06/14/texas-special-election-tx-34-mayra-flores-dan-sanchez/

There is a vote tracker at the link with a drop-down menu to view the results overall and by county. Currently, the race between Sanchez and Flores is nearly tied. Polls closed about a half-hour ago.