What Went Down At Biden’s State Of The Union And Texas’s Primary Election

A lot of us are turning our attention back to Texas, but since I mentioned the GOP and women earlier, it’s worth noting that the GOP response to Biden’s address tonight will be delivered by Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. Elected in 2017, she is the first female governor to lead Iowa (19 states have still yet to have a woman governor!). As The 19th wrote, asking her to deliver the rebuttal is arguably an attempt by the GOP to appeal to women voters.

Meanwhile, the Democratic race for lieutenant governor looks like it might be headed to a runoff, too. Mike Collier, an accountant and auditor who challenged incumbent Dan Patrick in 2018, currently leads the pack with roughly 44 percent of the vote, according to the New York Times. Behind him, at 29 percent, is state Rep. Michelle Beckley, who gained national attention last year after she joined lawmakers who fled to Washington, D.C., to block a restrictive Republican elections bill. Carla Brailey, the former vice chair of the Texas Democratic Party, currently sits at 27 percent, per the Times, with just over half of precincts reporting.

In Texas’s 30th District, where Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson is not seeking reelection, state Rep. Jasmine Crockett is just under the 50 percent she would need to avoid a runoff in the Democratic primary. Crockett, who was endorsed by Johnson, has 46.4 percent of the vote, according to the New York Times, while Jane Hamilton, who was the Biden campaign’s Texas state director in 2020, is in second with 19.6 percent. Less than 60 percent of precincts are reporting. The winner of the primary is almost certainly heading to Congress.