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Lubbock County offices headed for runoff elections following joint primaries

A photo of road signs in Lubbock for the 2026 joint primary elections.
Samantha Larned
/
KTTZ
The 2026 joint primary elections saw packed ballots for Republican and Democratic voters alike and several races on the state, federal, and local level are headed for runoff elections.

Following the 2026 joint primary elections, many of Texas’ races are headed into runoffs for voters to make the final determination on nominees for the general election.

Along with statewide offices like Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor, and U.S. Congressional District 19, Lubbock County has several races of its own that will be put back before voters this summer.

Read more: U.S. Congressional District 19 heads to a GOP runoff

A runoff election is initiated if no candidate receives more than 50% of the votes for the race.

Leading the vote for Commissioner of Lubbock County’s Precinct 2 is Kevin Pounds, with more than 39%. As of Wednesday afternoon, Trey Newton had about 120 votes more than Justin Martin and is expected to head to the runoff.

For Lubbock County Precinct 4, incumbent commissioner Jordan Rackler received about 47% of the votes and will be facing off against former commissioner Chad Seay.

Lubbock County Clerk will be a runoff election between Republican candidates Sandy Garcia – with more than 45% of the votes, and Jim Baxa with almost 37%.

Lubbock County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3 had candidates on both ballots. The Democratic nominee is Marina Garcia. And on the Republican side, Mary Hernandez had about 37% of the votes and is expected to runoff against Traci Baxa with more than 32% of the votes.

Lubbock County Democrats can expect to cast their votes again for the Democratic Party Chair. Candidate Gracie Gomez received about 39% of votes and will be competing with Margie Ceja, who received almost 31% of votes.

One race that will not go into a runoff and which will be uncontested come the general elections in November is Lubbock County Judge. Curtis Parrish – who has held the office since 2019 – received more than 62% of the votes, beating his fellow Republican, Wesley Houck. There are no Democratic candidates competing for the office.

Runoff elections for the primaries will take place on May 26.

Samantha Larned is a reporter and producer with KTTZ. Originally from Arizona, Samantha began her journalism career at Arizona Public Media in Tucson and moved to Lubbock in 2023. She has a focus on social issues and culture journalism.