State Rep. Carol Alvarado (D–Houston) pulled off a narrow win in Tuesday’s special election to finish the term of outgoing State Senator and Congresswoman-elect Sylvia Garcia.
Alvarado won with 50.4 percent of the vote, avoiding a runoff against State Rep. Ana Hernandez (D–Houston) by 60 votes. Both state representatives started paving the way for a run for Senate District 6 since Garcia won the Democrat primary in March.
The lone Republican in the race, Martha Fierro, came in just 177 votes behind Hernandez despite only beginning her campaign last month.
Fierro’s results caught the attention of Rice University professor Mark Jones, who tweeted that she had a “very impressive performance” and said, “I suspect we may see Fierro as a [Texas GOP] candidate in 2020…”
A very impressive performance in her 1st campaign for public office by @Fierro4Texas in the #txlege #SD6 Special Election! She won 23% of the vote, only 1% behind the 2nd place finisher in the heavily Dem SD6. I suspect we may see Fierro as a #TXGOP candidate in 2020 here in #HOU
— Mark P. Jones (@MarkPJonesTX) December 12, 2018
However, Fierro refused to concede on Election Night, tweeting, “According to sources there has been blatant & organized voter fraud in #SD6 spc election. We have also had several anecdotal reports of only 2 individuals being on the ballot, as well as Martha Fierro being listed as Libertarian. There will be no concession as of tonight.”
According to sources there has been blatant & organized voter fraud in #SD6 spc election. We have also had several anecdotal reports of only 2 individuals being on the ballot, as well as Martha Fierro being listed as Libertarian. There will be no concession as of tonight. #txlege
— Martha Fierro (@Fierro4Texas) December 12, 2018
Alvarado will fulfill Garcia’s term, which is set to expire in 2021. There’s no word yet on a special election to fill Alvarado’s seat during the upcoming legislature.
