Republican Brian Harrison won Tuesday’s special runoff election to represent Texas House District 10, defeating fellow Republican and former State Rep. John Wray with 55 percent of the vote.
Harrison, a small-business man and former Trump administration official, will fill the seat vacated by former State Rep. Jake Ellzey (R–Waxahachie), who was elected to Congress earlier this year.
Local grassroots conservatives supported Harrison, calling Wray an ”establishment career politician.”
Wray held the seat just prior to Ellzey but chose not to seek a fourth House term in 2020, saying “elected jobs are not meant to be lifetime positions.”
Voter turnout was 9 percent, according to election results on the Texas secretary of state’s website.
House District 10 includes all of Ellis County and part of Henderson County.
This was the fourth special election in five months for Ellis County voters.
In May, Ellzey and Susan Wright were the top two finishers in a special election to replace Susan’s late husband, U.S. Rep. Ron Wright, in representing the 6th Congressional District, which includes Ellis, Navarro, and part of Tarrant.
Ellzey then beat Wright in a July special runoff for the U.S. House seat, setting up another round of special elections to fill his vacated state House seat.
Last month, Harrison and Wray were the top finishers in an expedited special election to replace Ellzey in HD 10, sending them to Tuesday’s runoff.
Harrison will serve out Ellzey’s remaining state House term, which runs through January 2023.
All Texas House and Senate seats will be up for re-election in 2022. The boundaries of House District 10 could change after this year’s redistricting process. The House has not yet released its proposed new district maps.
Primaries are scheduled for March 1 but could be postponed, since COVID caused delays in delivering census data states needed to complete their decennial redistricting process.
