The Republican skirmish for the U.S. Senate nomination isn’t any anywhere anytime soon.
With 63 percent of precincts reporting, Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst is stopping short of the 50 percent plus one vote needed to avoid a runoff. He currently has 46 percent of the vote, or 499,817 votes.
Former Texas solicitor general Ted Cruz is second in a nine candidate field with 33 percent, or 359,177 votes.Speaking to his supporters, Dewhurst spoke generally on his record saying that Texas voters had delivered a message: “We're going to fight back against President Obama’s trampling on the U.S. Constitution, and the 10th amendment and our religious freedom.”
In Cruz’s speech, the candidate invited Dewhurst to series of five debates prior to the runoff, “where each of us can stand in front of the people, we can answer your questions, and we can defend our own records.
“And if he wants to make the cast to the people of Texas that he thinks I’m an amnesty-supporting, China-loving pinko liberal,” Cruz continued, “then I encourage him to do so – in person.”
The runoff election is set for July 31.
