Democratic State Representative Carol Alvarado won the special election for Texas Senate District 6.
Alvarado polled just over 50 percent of the vote in the four-way contest, avoiding a runoff that would have stretched well into the new legislative session. State Representative Ana Hernandez managed a distant second place with less than a quarter of the votes cast.
Alvarado will now succeed Sylvia Garcia — the woman who beat her five years ago, when she ran in the last special election for S-D 6. Garcia resigned from the Texas Senate last month, after winning election to Congress.
The outcome means that, come January, there will be an empty seat in the lower chamber of the Legislature. Governor Greg Abbott will have to call for another special election — this one for Alvarado's House District 145.
