Republican John Lujan flips Texas House seat in San Antonio
Republican John Lujan flips Texas House seat in San Antonio
Virginia Aabram
Republican John Lujan won a special election runoff for Texas House District 118 on Tuesday, flipping the seat red.
Lujan won with 51.2% of the vote, while his Democrat rival Frank Ramirez had 48.8%, according to unofficial results. The district is in San Antonio in south Texas, indicating Republicans are gaining a foothold in the heavily Hispanic area.
President Joe Biden won the district by 14 points in 2020.
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The special election was held to replace Leo Pacheco, who resigned to assume a university position. Pacheco, a Democrat, was elected in 2020 with 56.7% of the vote, a big enough advantage negating the need for a runoff.
Lujan briefly held the same seat following a special election in 2016, becoming the first Republican to do so, but lost the position after losing to Democrat Tomas Uresti that November for a full two-year term.
“I’m a blessed man to win this for the second time, and to be the only Republican ever to win this seat, I think, is really important for us down here,” Lujan said to the Texas Tribune, adding that he saw his win as a sign conservatism is taking hold of the Hispanic community.
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Ramirez conceded the race.
“We didn’t make it over the line tonight,” he said in a statement. “But we gave Texas Republicans a run for their money at every single step.”
The seat will be up for election again in 2022.