In a Close Race, HD-108 Contest Waits For Final Election Tally
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With less than 500 votes separating Joanna Cattanach and Republican incumbent Morgan Meyer in the State House 108 race, the outcome of the race will continue to be uncertain for a few more days.
With all the precincts in — but not all the provisional and mail-in ballots counted — Meyer is currently ahead of Cattanach by 440 votes — the slimmest of margins. The 108th includes the Park Cities and parts of Dallas.
Meyer, an attorney, is considered to be a moderate Republican of the Joe Straus’ vein. Cattanach, a college professor, spoke candidly during the campaign of her experiences as a foster child and her advocacy for women and children.
“Every vote matters and we are determined to make sure the correct outcome of this race includes all ballots including provisional and mail-in ballots,” campaign spokesperson Jacob Limon said Wednesday evening. “As such, our campaign will work with the County elections department until ALL ballots are counted.”
“Our campaign staff and volunteers, our supporters and allies, and most especially the voters in House District 108 deserve a factual and thorough count, and we have the time in which to pursue such action,” he added.
An hour earlier, Meyer and his wife, Keana, made their own statement.
“We are honored and grateful for the support and to be returning to the Texas House to work on behalf of families, and Texas,” they said on Facebook.
If the final tally swings Cattanach’s way, she would be the 13th state house seat the Democrats pick up — the most ever for the party. It would also mean that only one GOP incumbent retains her seat in the Dallas area — Angie Chen Button.
Some interesting statistics from last night:
- U.S. House districts nationwide that flipped to Democrats did so by an average shift of 21 points, the New York Times reported. In Texas, that shift was 32 points.
- Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Attorney General Ken Paxton were re-elected with margins of 5 points or less.
- Veronica Escobar (El Paso) and Sylvia Garcia (Houston) became the state’s first Latinas elected to Congress.
- Turnout statewide topped 8.3 million. In Dallas County, 727,371 voted — 54.33 percent of all registered voters.
- Despite the record turnout, about 7.5 million registered voters didn’t cast ballots in this election. Another nearly 2.3 million were eligible to vote but not registered.
More reaction to last night’s results:
Good morning. In an overnight shocker, @BetoORourke won Tarrant County by 3800 votes. Tarrant County is no longer the perfect bellwether of Texas elections: It’s more purple now. #txsen #tx2018 pic.twitter.com/RPm61It76P
— Bud Kennedy / #ReadLocal (@BudKennedy) November 7, 2018
Under the hood in Texas – a lot of races that weren’t supposed to be close, very much were: pic.twitter.com/cfRbOd8zXE
— Will Jordan (@williamjordann) November 7, 2018
To be clear, if @EmpowerTexans we’re a stock and you were to invest $1.00, you would now have only $0.22 left. You would have lost 78% of your money. To my friends in the #TxLege and #TxSen, I’m no expert, but this this seems like a bad investment. #StayAway https://t.co/bzF96Ea0ic
— Jason Villalba (@JasonVillalba) November 7, 2018
Imagine you had a computer that was 14 years old and you only turned it on every two years. A miracle if it worked right! Also that’s your voting machine.
— Brian Barrett (@brbarrett) November 6, 2018
U.S. voters approved at least $12.3 billion of bond sales https://t.co/kgDr67QJKB pic.twitter.com/LLcgWrjb1o
— Bloomberg (@business) November 7, 2018
Many takeaways from #tx2018. Here’s a biggie: Democrats blew through the electoral ceiling that penned them in for twenty+ years. Losing candidates up and down ballot got 46, 47. Statewide races w/margins of 5, 6. Not blue, exactly, but less red #txlege
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) November 7, 2018
For all the talk of how weak @LupeValdez was as a #txgov candidate — and I absolutely pushed that narrative myself — she got nearly 1.7M more votes than @wendydavis and 1.5M more than Bill White, plus a higher % of vote (42.5) than either. Lost by *only* 13.3 #tx2018
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) November 7, 2018
BREAKDOWN: Digging into these numbers this morning. Pretty interesting stuff. @NBCDFW https://t.co/IwWjK81FGZ
— Katy Blakey (@KatyBlakeyNBC5) November 7, 2018
Voters in Collin County approved $750 million in improvements meant to keep up with the county’s rapid expansion. https://t.co/9JcfZsDRBU #Election2018 pic.twitter.com/5x9TDr1vvb
— NBC DFW (@NBCDFW) November 7, 2018
Beyond appreciative for our community’s support FOR our students and staff. This is a big step in the right direction for our school district. https://t.co/qdPExg5Rwo
— Justin Bono (@bonojl) November 7, 2018
