Voters decide state legislative primaries in Maine, runoffs in Texas


Image of a red sign with the words "Polling Place" a pointing arrow.

The statewide primary for Maine and the primary runoff for Texas took place on July 14, 2020. Candidates competed to advance to the general election scheduled for November 3.

Texas’s statewide primary was held on March 3, 2020. If no candidate received a majority of the votes in the primary, the top two vote-getters advanced to the primary runoff.

On July 14, candidates ran in elections for the following state legislative offices:

Maine House of Representatives (151 seats)

• Sixteen races remained uncalled as of July 15, 2020. Each incumbent who filed to run advanced to the general election in the races that had been called.

Maine State Senate (35 seats)

• Seven races remained uncalled as of July 15, 2020. Each incumbent who filed to run advanced to the general election in the races that had been called.

Texas House of Representatives (14 seats)
• Bryan Slaton defeated incumbent Dan Flynn in the District 2 Republican primary runoff.
• Shelby Slawson defeated incumbent J.D. Sheffield in the District 59 Republican primary runoff.

• Five races remained uncalled as of July 15, 2020.

Texas State Senate (2 seats)
• Roland Gutierrez defeated Xochil Pena Rodriguez in the District 19 Democratic primary runoff.

• Incumbent Eddie Lucio defeated Sara Stapleton-Barrera in the District 27 Democratic primary runoff.

Texas State Senate District 14 special general election (1 seat)

• The race was too close to call as of July 15, 2020.

For state legislative primaries, Maine uses a ranked-choice voting system in which voters rank candidates by preference on their ballots. If a candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, he or she is declared the winner. If no candidate wins a majority of first-preference votes, the candidate with the fewest first-preference votes is eliminated. First-preference votes cast for the losing candidate are eliminated, lifting the second-preference choices indicated on those ballots. A new tally is conducted to determine whether any candidate has won a majority of the adjusted votes. The process is repeated until a candidate wins an outright majority.

Maine’s primary was the 31st to take place in the 2020 election cycle. The next primary is on August 4 in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Washington, and Tennessee.

Additional reading:
Maine State Senate elections, 2020
Maine House of Representatives elections, 2020
Texas State Senate elections, 2020
Texas House of Representatives elections, 2020
Texas state legislative special elections, 2020