Two key Texas races heading to runoffs

The Republican nomination for the Congressional district that includes NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) is headed to a runoff election after Tuesday’s primary, while elsewhere in the state, a longtime member and former chairman of the House Science Committee is also headed to a runoff.

In the 36th Congressional District, which just barely includes JSC, Brian Babin and Ben Streusand finished with 33% and 23% of the votes, respectively, and will face off in a runoff election on May 27. As noted here a few days ago, neither Babin nor Streusand discuss space as an issue on their campaign websites.

That seat opened up when the current representative for that district, Steve Stockman, decided to challenge incumbent John Cornyn for the Republican nomination for the US Senate. Cornyn, though, easily won the nomination, picking up nearly 60% of the vote compared to Stockman’s 19%.

Meanwhile, in the state’s 4th Congressional District, longtime Rep. Ralph Hall is heading to a runoff for the Republican nomination. Hall won a plurality of the votes in Tuesday’s primary, but at 45% failed to capture a majority needed to avoid a runoff. Hall will face John Ratcliffe, who got nearly 29% of the vote, in the May 27th runoff. Hall, a former chairman and current chairman emeritus of the House Science Committee, is seen as potentially vulnerable in the runoff given his limited campaign finances compared to Ratcliffe.