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Two Harris Central Appraisal District board elections are headed to runoffs, according to complete but unofficial returns Saturday night, while the Democratic-endorsed candidate led the race for the third seat in first-time, countywide elections marked by underwhelming voter turnout.
In state Senate District 15, emergency room nurse and organizer Molly Cook won the special election to fill the remaining months of Mayor John Whitmire’s old term. Her opponent, state Rep. Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, said the result was marred by low turnout.
There were 16,302 votes cast in the Senate race. The appraisal district races, which were countywide, drew more than three times that.
Still, with all voting centers tallied shortly after midnight, just 2.1% of Harris County’s 2.56 million registered voters cast ballots.
A host of municipal, school and other local elections were held Saturday in the counties surrounding Harris.
First-time countywide appraisal board elections also were held in Liberty, Montgomery, Brazoria and Fort Bend counties on Saturday. Galveston County canceled its election because not enough candidates filed for the seats.
In the Harris’ appraisal district elections, former Houston Independent School District trustee Kathy Blueford-Daniels clung to a slim majority to avoid a runoff for Place 1. Certified public accountant Bill R. Frazer finished second.
Business owner Kyle Scott led a crowded field of five candidates in the Place 2 election, but he was well short of the 50 percent margin needed to avoid a runoff. Former state representative and Houston City Council member Melissa Noriega was in second, according to unofficial results.
Business owner Ericka McCrutcheon led four other candidates in the Place 3 election, but fell short of the 50 percent margin needed to avoid a runoff. Businesswoman Pelumi Adeleke was in second place, followed closely by attorney Amy Lacy.
Lower turnout expected for runoffs
The runoffs for the Place 2 and Place 3 appraisal district seats will be held June 15, when the county likely will see even lower turnout, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.
“Obscure offices, skipping voting, it reinforces the feeling you don’t have a say,” Rottinghaus said. “The turnout defeats the purpose of having these be elected. The stated purpose was greater representation, but that’s not happening.”
Elections in the late spring and summer often see low turnout because voters are focused on the end of the school year and summer plans, he said.
The candidates are running to represent county voters on the appraisal district’s board of directors, a governing body that sets the agency’s budget, can hire or fire the chief appraiser, but does not have the ability to raise or lower residents’ property taxes or appraisals.
The elected positions were created as part of a sweeping constitutional amendment aimed at lowering property taxes approved by voters statewide in November.
The last sentence of the November measure created four-year terms for three appraisal board positions in the state’s 50 counties with a population larger than 75,000. Until now, all nine members have been appointed by the local taxing entities represented by the district.
State Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston and author of the legislation, said the elections needed to be held in early May to keep the posts nonpartisan and seat elected members ahead of property tax season this fall.
Party endorsements for nonpartisan seats
The new elections generated an air of suspicion from county Democrats, who alleged they could be an attempt to wrest local control of county government from the party.
Candidates endorsed by the Harris County Republican Party or the Harris County Democratic Party saw the most support in the crowded elections.
Canvassing teams from both parties began block-walking several weeks ago for their chosen candidates in an effort to turn out their parties’ voters in the expected low turnout election.
Most voters approached by the Democrats’ canvassing team over the last couple weeks said they were surprised to learn there was an upcoming election, said Evan Choate, the Harris County Democratic Party Victory 2024 campaign manager.
“We would love to have been able to respond more fully, but in a way I was grateful we were able to do anything at all to move in these elections,” Choate said.
The Harris County Democratic Party endorsed seven of the 13 candidates running in the three elections. The liberal-aligned Texas Gulf Coast Area Labor Federation endorsed and canvassed for one candidate for each of the races: Blueford-Daniels, Noriega and Pelumi Adeleke.
The Harris County Republican Party backed Frazer, Scott and McCrutcheon and organized block walks for the three.
Despite the Democratic bent of Harris County’s electorate, Republican-endorsed Scott and McCrutcheon led their respective races.
“The significance of two Republicans outperforming multiple Democrats in a countywide race cannot be understated,” Harris County GOP chair Cindy Siegel wrote in a statement Saturday evening.
Siegel credited her party’s get-out-the-vote efforts for the candidates’ success.
Both Scott and McCrutcheon face runoffs against Democratic-endorsed candidates in June.
Senate District 15
Across a long swath of west and north Houston that makes up Senate District 15, turnout was similarly low.
Cook declared victory while watching returns at her Montrose campaign headquarters.
“The people of Texas Senate District 15 have trusted me to be their senator-elect,” Cook said.
Cook said the results give her confidence heading into the May 28 Democratic primary runoff, also against Johnson.
Johnson did not concede Saturday’s race, but issued a statement lamenting the low turnout and exhorted supporters to turn out for the May 28 primary runoff.
“I need you to mark your calendars and get ready to vote in the Democratic primary runoff only three weeks away, early voting starts May 20th and Election Day is May 28th,” Johnson wrote. “Your vote in the primary runoff is crucial to ensuring our district is represented by a Democrat who can go toe-to-toe with Greg Abbott, the NRA, and the Republicans’ hateful agenda.”
Johnson said out-of-state money is being spent to defeat him. Johnson said the spending was part of an effort to limit voter turnout in the Democratic county and said he was the experienced politician needed in the state Senate to push back against Republican policies.
Cook and Johnson were the only two candidates running in the special election, which was open to candidates from both parties. A crowded slate of six candidates ran in the Democratic primary in March, but none of the four losing candidates filed to run in the special election.
The special election to fill Mayor Whitmire’s remaining Senate term was a prelude to a May 28 Democratic primary runoff between Johnson and Cook that will serve as a de facto general election for a four-year term in the heavily Democratic district.
In the weeks leading up to Saturday’s election, both candidates said they would rather win the primary runoff in late May, although they both did say they did not want to lose either contest.
Experts say the winner of the special election could see a late boost in fundraising before the primary runoff, but it is unlikely to significantly affect the outcome.
Houston businessman Joseph Trahan, who ran uncontested in March, is the Republican nominee for the seat in November.
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