LIVE UPDATES: Follow the results of the Democratic primary for US Senate in Texas
- Along with the Democratic presidential primary, Texas voters will pick a Democratic nominee to face off against US Senator John Cornyn in November.
- Multiple candidates are vying to build on the groundbreaking US Senate campaign of Beto O'Rourke, who came within three percentage points of beating Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.
- Polls close at 7 p.m. Central Time at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Polls in Texas close at 7 p.m. Central Time at 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Texas US Senate Democratic primary results:
Who are the candidates?
Here are the main candidates competing for the Democratic nomination:
- US Air Force veteran and former 2018 congressional candidate MJ Hegar
- Activist and former Workers Defense Project director Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez
- Houston City Council member Amanda Edwards
- State Senator Royce West
- Former Rep. Chris Bell
- Texas Poor People's Campaign director Sema Hernandez
- Military veteran Victor Harris
While Hegar leads the field in fundraising and has received several prominent endorsements, including the backing of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, she still faces formidable competition from a number of other Texas elected officials and activists.
The most recent poll of the race, conducted by Marist College and NBC News from February 23-27, found Hegar leading the field with the support of 16% of likely primary voters compared to 9% for Tzintzún Ramirez and 8% for West.
Texas is a run-off state, meaning that if no candidate earns over 30% of the vote in a primary, the top two vote-getters advance to a run-off election to be held on May 26, 2020. Given the lack of an overwhelmingly clear frontrunner in this race, Hegar and another candidate are likely to advance to a run-off.
What's at stake in the primary?
For decades, Texas was a reliable Republican stronghold - especially so at the state level, where Texans haven't elected a Democrat since the 1990s.
But due to long-term demographic shifts and college-educated white professionals rapidly swinging from the GOP to the Democrats -which was especially apparent in the 2018 midterms - Texas is steadily trending purple.
This year, Democrats are vying to build on the highly successful, groundbreaking US Senate campaign of Beto O'Rourke, who came within three percentage points of beating Sen. Ted Cruz in 2018.
Catch up on live coverage from the primary:
While you wait for Texas results to come in, head over to our main Super Tuesday post to follow all the action.
Follow along with the results from the Democratic presidential primary in Texas and all Texas down-ballot House primaries.