AUSTIN — Amid an array of important national and statewide primary elections on Tuesday, one race for a crucial Texas House seat appears to be hanging on a single vote.

In House District 47, an area that encompasses much of west Austin, voters narrowly chose two Republican candidates to continue competing to be their next state representative. As of Wednesday morning, attorney Jennifer Fleck and former Austin City Councilman Don Zimmerman earned the first and second spots in the five-way race. But since neither candidate earned a majority of the votes (Fleck with 32 percent and Zimmerman with nearly 23 percent), the two will face off again in a runoff election in May.

However, Zimmerman finished only one vote ahead of third-place Justin Berry, with a final tally of 4,099 to 4,098.

“We’ll have more to say on this later. For now please know YOUR VOTE MATTERS,” Zimmerman wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday. However, Berry said he’s still in the fight and is expected to call for a recount.

Meanwhile, Central Texas voters in nearby House District 45, an important swing district which includes Hays and Blanco counties, also picked two Republican contenders to face off in a May runoff. Carrie Isaac, wife of former State Rep. Jason Isaac, and Kent “Bud” Wymore, former chairman of the Hays County GOP, earned respectively 47 and 41 percent of the votes in the three-way race.

The winners of both runoff races in May will each compete against radical freshman Democrat lawmakers in November: Vikki Goodwin in HD 47 and Erin Zwiener in HD 45. Both Democrats earned a dismal 20/100 on the Fiscal Responsibility Index and voted repeatedly against their own constituents, choosing to raise taxes on citizens, strip away protections for preborn children, and silence free speech on college campuses.

Central Texans will ultimately decide on November 3 who will represent them at the state Capitol.

Jacob Asmussen

Jacob Asmussen is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard. He attended the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in 2017 earned a double major in public relations and piano performance.

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