Republican Peter Flores Upsets Democrat Pete Gallego in Texas Senate District 19 Special Election

By: Miguel Munoz, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2018

Republican retired Game Warden Peter Flores upset Democrat Pete Gallego in the September 18, 2018 Texas Senate District 19 Special Election Runoff garnering a total of 23,576 votes compared to Gallego’s 20,911 votes, a margin of victory of 2,665 votes throughout the 17 county-wide election.

The Texas Senate District 19 Special Election was called by Governor Greg Abbott to replace former State Senator Carlos Uresti of San Antonio, Texas who resigned after being convicted in federal court of bribery and money laundering involving an oil and gas sand fracking company.

Governor Abbott and the Texas Republican Party chose to call the Texas Senate District 19 Special Election Runoff on September 18, 2018 instead of the regular November 6, 2018 State General Election as part of an intentional strategy to snatch the generally Democratic-leaning Senate District 19 in a low voter turnout election, which the strategy worked to perfection allowing Flores to pull the upset win over former Congressman and State Representative Gallego.

Flores’ victory will provide the Texas Republican Majority Senate to bring and approve legislation in the Legislature without Democratic Party bi-partisanship or support.

Flores will serve the unexpired term of former State Senator Carlos Uresti until 2020, at which time he will have to run for re-election to a full four-year term in November 2020 during a Presidential Election Year that should draw a significantly larger voter turnout than the September 18th Special Election.

In Maverick County alone, Pete Gallego received a total of 1,309 votes compared to Flores’ 532 votes. Only a total of 1,841 Maverick Countians cast a ballot in the September 18th Special Election out of a total of over 30,000 registered voters and generally 8,000 to 10,000 voters regularly voting in a regular election.

However, Flores won his home county of Atascosa with 2,193 votes compared to Gallego’s 853 votes. Flores also won big in Medina County (Hondo & Castroville) with a total of 3,953 votes compared to Gallego’s 912 votes. Flores also won in Crockett County with 252 votes compared to Gallego’s 76 votes; Edwards County with 232 votes compared to Gallego’s 44 votes; Frio County with 498 votes compared to Gallego’s 415 votes; Kinney County with 250 votes compared to Gallego’s 81 votes; Pecos County with 552 votes compared to Gallego’s 334 votes; Real County 490 votes to Gallego’s 71 votes; Terrell County with 64 votes to Gallego’s 49 votes; and Uvalde County with 1,565 votes to Gallego’s 881 votes.
Meanwhile, Gallego won the following counties: Bexar County with 11,915 votes compared to Flores’ 10,215 votes; his home county of Brewster with 1,197 votes to Flores’ 804 votes; Dimmit County with 438 votes compared to Flores’ 198 votes; Reeves County with 380 votes compared to Flores’ 288 votes; Val Verde County with 1,487 votes compared to Flores’ 1,381 votes; and Zavala County with 469 votes compared to Flores’ 104 votes.