Dallas’ Royce West wins spot in Democratic Senate runoff against MJ Hegar

AUSTIN — Democratic state Sen. Royce West of Dallas has survived to face a runoff in the Texas race for U.S. Senate — against MJ Hegar of Round Rock.

Late Wednesday, after 24 hours of uncertainty about whether she or West would squeeze into the runoff, labor organizer Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez of Austin conceded.

“The results are in, and we have finished outside of the top two,” Tzintzún Ramirez tweeted.

Reinforcing his campaign slogan, West quickly moved to “thank the voters of this state who made Royce their choice.”

In a written statement, he said, “I believe we are well-positioned to win the runoff. The runoff is a brand new day.”

On the Republican side, three-term incumbent John Cornyn of San Antonio exulted after racking up more than three-quarters of the vote in his primary — and heading straight to the November election without a runoff.

As of Feb. 12, Cornyn had slightly more than $12 million in campaign cash — more than 14 times as much as Hegar, the best-funded Democrat.

About the only Tuesday result that may have displeased Cornyn was former Vice President Joe Biden’s stunning resurgence in the Democratic presidential race.

Already, Cornyn has spent weeks trying to link his fall foe — whomever it is — with “socialism” and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

As Cornyn told supporters in Austin on Tuesday night, his general-election strategy is to “cede no voter and no region of Texas” and to welcome Democrats.

“Like I’ve done in the Senate, I will reach across the aisle, welcoming Texans caught in the Democrat Party’s civil war and repelled by socialism, to join our efforts,” he said.

Hegar, 43, a military veteran and former congressional candidate who has the support of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, scoffed at what she called a “laughable” big-tent approach by Cornyn.

Asked if she’s concerned that Cornyn’s nearly 1.5 million votes Tuesday dwarfed her almost 400,000, Hegar called it an “apples to oranges” comparison.

“The number that scares John Cornyn is the number of people who voted in the Democratic primaries across the state,” she said during an interview for The Dallas Morning News and the Lone Star Politics program on KXAS-TV (NBC5).

Combat veteran and U.S. Senate candidate MJ Hegar thanked supporters Paul Bell and his daughter Amanda, 13, during a watch party Tuesday in Austin. (Bronte Wittpenn/Austin American-Statesman)
Combat veteran and U.S. Senate candidate MJ Hegar thanked supporters Paul Bell and his daughter Amanda, 13, during a watch party Tuesday in Austin. (Bronte Wittpenn/Austin American-Statesman)(Bronte Wittpenn)
Statewide, only about 86,000 more people voted in the GOP primary for U.S. Senate — 1.93 million — than voted in the Democrats’ nominating contest. In 2012, the last time the presidential race coincided with a Texas Senate race, Republicans cast 1.4 million votes in their primary. Only about 497,000 Democrats voted in theirs.

“The fact that he’s started to talk about how he’s going to reach across the aisle and try to earn some Democratic votes … is laughable after he’s put the good of his party above the good of our country and of our state for so long,” Hegar said. “He’s nervous. And he should be.”

West, 67, hopes to cap his career as a 27-year state senator by going to Washington.

But he enters the May 26 runoff against Hegar with major challenges in fundraising and becoming better known beyond North Texas. His Feb. 12 cash balance was about $308,000. That was after Hegar outspent him, $3 million to $816,000.

While West outpolled Hegar nearly 3-to-1 in Dallas County, his home, and edged her by about 8,000 votes in Tarrant County, she beat him in Collin and Denton counties. In those counties, Hegar ran up numbers almost as big as West’s and Tzintzún Ramirez’s combined.

In Harris County, Hegar won a plurality even though two well-known local politicians — Chris Bell and Amanda Edwards — were in the Senate primary. There, West finished a distant fourth.

Hegar romped in Travis County, where West ran fifth. And in Bexar County, where Tzintzún Ramirez won a plurality, Hegar was a close second. She drew more than three times as many votes there as West.

In his statement, West hinted he hopes the 10 Democrats who didn’t make the runoff will support him this spring.

“To my colleagues in this hard-fought contest: Thank you for helping build the most diverse field of candidates in the history of this state to seek public office,” he said.

“Thank you for sharing your ideas, and for challenging your peers in this race. I am confident that some of the faces who will be the future of the Texas Democratic Party were on the stages of many forums across our state in this race, and I encourage you to remain involved.”

Tzintzún Ramirez said her campaign ran on “the power of us” and thanked working-class Texans who supported her. Still, the results suggested she was hurt by not being known to enough people — and competing with two other, little-known Hispanic females.

Together, nearly 18% of the statewide vote went to Houston lawyer Annie “Mamá” Garcia and Houston activist Sema Hernandez, who garnered 24% of the vote against Beto O’Rourke in the Senate Democratic primary two years ago. That exceeded Tzintzún Ramirez’s 13.3%.