Republican David Spiller Wins Special Election Runoff for Texas House District 68

Republican David Spiller, a Jacksboro attorney, won the special election runoff for Texas House District 68 on Tuesday.

The district stretches from North Texas into the Panhandle and is composed of 22 counties, making it the largest district in the state by the number of counties.

The special election took place after former U.S. Congressman John Ratcliffe (R) was chosen as the sixth Director of National Intelligence, beginning a domino effect in Texas politics.

When State Sen. Pat Fallon (R) opted to run for Ratcliffe's open seat in Congress, Drew Springer (R) then chose to run for Fallon's Texas Senate position and leave his State House seat vacant.

Gov. Greg Abbott originally announced the Texas House of Representatives District 68 vacancy on Dec. 28 of last year and gave candidates a week to file their applications.

Five candidates entered the race but none secured more than 50% of the vote, leading to a special election runoff between the top two candidates, David Spiller, who received 43.3% of the vote, and Craig Carter, who received 17.8% of the vote.

Craig Carter, a Nocona businessman and nonprofit owner, continued the race all the way to the end despite a horrific car crash at the beginning of this year that killed both his mother-in-law and 4-year-old daughter and left Carter's son severely injured.

The final tally Tuesday ended with Spiller securing 62.9% of the vote.

Congratulations to David Spiller on winning today’s election for #HD68! I look forward to working with him on policies to benefit & represent the 4 counties we share, the folks of HD68 that I’ll always love, & the great state of Texas. #txlege #SD30 @DavidSpillerTX (follow him) pic.twitter.com/YOgxobwssL

— Drew Springer (@DrewSpringer) February 24, 2021

Fewer than 7,000 voters cast a ballot in the special election runoff, possibly due to weather last week, even with the early voting period starting on Feb. 16.

Texas will have another special election on May 1 to replace the Dist. 6 U.S. House seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Rep. Ron Wright earlier this month.

Campaigns are already underway in Texas’s 6th Congressional District, with Wright's widow Susan, Lydia Bean and Jana Lynn Sanchez all announcing their candidacy.