Polls have closed in Texas, where the first primary election of the 2022 election season was held, at a time when Republicans have pushed the state's politics further to the right.
Governor
Greg Abbott
, who is seeking re-election, is projected as the winner of the Republican primary, while
Beto O'Rourke
managed to secure the Democratic nomination to run for governor.
The governor got the nomination with relative ease, after running a political campaign based on the
hard hand with immigrants on the border with Mexico.
But also supporting causes of the conservative movement such as the expansion of the right to bear arms and the approval of the most restrictive law on abortion throughout the country.
[Texas abortions fell 60% in the first month under the restrictive new law]
Our sister network NBC News also projected Dan Patrick as the winner of the Republican primary to repeat as Lieutenant Governor.
Races for governor and other state offices, as well as key congressional races, were on the ballot in
the first major midterm election this year.
The results of the Democratic election for lieutenant governor and attorney general and the Republican race for attorney general remain very close and are not yet defined, according to the count of NBC News.
Greg Abbott claims that Mexican cartels use TikTok to recruit traffickers in the US.
Jan. 28, 202200:51
The results of Tuesday's primary will test the influence of Trump, who supported more than 30 Republican candidates in Texas, including Abbott's.
Abbott has sought to position himself as a successor to former President Donald Trump on immigration policy, announcing he will build new portions of the border wall with Mexico and imposing jail terms on migrants who cross into the country irregularly on private property.
In January, a judge in Travis County, Texas, ruled against this policy, dubbed Operation Lone Star, by declaring the imprisonment of an immigrant who crossed the border illegally unconstitutional.
Abbott's ultra-conservative reproductive health policies have even proven too much for some who identify with his party.
"That's where I think Republicans today have crossed the line a little bit," Eric Medrano, a 25-year-old Houstonian who voted for one of Abbott's right-wing rivals, Don Huffines, told The Associated Press. ".
The results of Tuesday's primary will test the influence of Trump, who supported more than 30 Republican candidates in Texas, including Abbott's.
But they also see the resurgence of a Democratic candidate from El Paso, Texas, who surprised in 2018 by campaigning for the senate seat of Republican Ted Cruz, who ended up winning the race by just over two percentage points.
Democratic promoters invite you to vote for the party's candidates in the Texas elections on March 1, 2022. Emil Lippe / AP
Robert Francis O'Rourke, who prefers to be called by his Spanish nickname,
Beto,
launched an energetic presidential campaign highlighting his ties to the Latino community, but ended up losing momentum during debates involving several dozen candidates. and suspended it before the primaries and caucuses.
They denounce the return of hundreds of ballots sent by mail in the primary elections of Texas
March 1, 202202:20
O'Rourke is also expected to face an uphill race to succeed Abbott.
Texas has not elected a Democrat as governor since Ann Richards won in 1990. In some polls, the Democrat trails the current president by seven percentage points. Officials from Harris County, the most populous county in Texas and where Houston is located , reported Tuesday night that
the finding of damaged ballots would prevent them from tabulating all votes before Wednesday night's deadline.
“We are closely monitoring the progress of ballot tabulation in Harris County to ensure that all relevant election laws are followed and that ballots legitimately cast by Harris County voters in Democratic and Republican primary elections are counted accurately. accurate and timely manner,” Secretary of State John B. Scott said.
[Supreme Court upholds Texas abortion law but allows clinics to challenge it in court]
Tonight's attention has also focused on the battle between centrist Democratic legislator Henry Cuellar and progressive prosecutor Jessica Cisneros, who are seeking the 28th congressional district seat.
Cisneros lost to Cuellar in 2020, but this year's rematch was rocked by FBI raids on the incumbent's home and campaign office as part of an investigation into American businessmen's ties to Azerbaijan.
Oil platform explodes and leaves several people trapped in Texas
Feb. 25, 202200:19
Meanwhile, Trump-backed Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to fend off a challenge from state land commissioner George P. Bush, the son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whom Trump attacked during the 2016 presidential primary. The race also includes Rep. Louie Gohmert and Eva Guzman, a former state Supreme Court justice.
The race to succeed Bush as land commissioner also drew Trump's attention
.
The former president endorsed state Sen. Dawn Buckingham, who has made the future of the Alamo - the famous site of the battle against General Santa Anna during the Texas War of Independence - the focus of his campaign.
The Alamo, which is overseen by the land commissioner, is in the midst of a major redevelopment project and is the subject of debate about how Texas Independence and the role of slavery should be remembered.