Many races remain undecided after the March 3 primary election — including who Republicans and Democrats will choose to represent them in key statewide and congressional races.

In contests where no candidate secured at least 50% of the vote, the top two vote-takers must now face off in May 26 primary runoffs.

That’s left Republican leaders scrambling to snuff out bruising runoffs that could drain resources in a tough midterm election, while Democrats are still deciding who to put forward in races they once wouldn’t have thought were in play.

Read about all of the candidates in the San Antonio Report’s guide to the
Republican and Democratic runoff elections.

A few reminders about the how the primary runoff works in Texas:

  • Anyone can vote in the primary runoff, even if they didn’t participate in the March 3 primary.
  • You don’t have to be registered with a party to vote in the primary or the primary runoff.
  • You can cast a ballot in either party’s primary — but not both. You’ll just select the party’s ballot you want before you enter the voting booth.
  • Voters who participated in the first round must continue using the same party’s ballot in the runoff. For example, if you selected the Democratic primary ballot for the March 3 primary, you can only vote in Democratic primary runoffs on May 26.
  • Both parties’ voters use the same polling locations, operated by the county elections department.
  • The deadline to register to vote in the runoff election was April 27.
  • Early voting runs Monday, May 18 through Friday, May 22. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. Choose from any of these early voting locations or view locations by map.
  • A longer list of election day voting locations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 26. Find an Election Day voting location near you using this map.
  • The Elections Department has a new link to check your voter registration status and download a copy of your personal sample ballot. Print it out, mark it up and take it with you when you go to vote.

We hope you enjoy getting to know the candidates!

Andrea Drusch is a Texas politics reporter covering local, state and federal government for the San Antonio Report. She has a journalism degree from TCU's Schieffer School and started her career in Washington,...