Valdez to face White for Democratic gubernatorial nomination, while Fletcher takes on Moser in Congressional District 7.
The Senate race is settled, but the House playing field in Texas will take two more months to sort out.
After an unprecedented set of jam-packed primaries left the leaders of several key primaries below the 50% mark, runoffs are set for May 22.
Here’s a look at what we know — and what we don’t — as Texas tallies the results of Tuesday’s primaries:
It’s O’Rourke vs. Cruz
Democratic Rep. Beto O’Rourke got through the Senate primary without a runoff, CNN projected, and is now set to take on Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
With O’Rourke and Cruz set to square off, Cruz’s campaign quickly released a 60-second radio ad featuring a country music jingle in which O’Rourke is mocked for going by “Beto” rather than his given name, “Robert.”
Left unmentioned: The Republican senator, whose given name is Rafael Edward Cruz, also shortened his, to “Ted.”
“My parents have called me Beto from day one, and it’s just — it’s kind of a nickname for Robert in El Paso. It just stuck,” O’Rourke said in a brief phone interview Tuesday night.
CNN has rated the race Likely Republican.
Six more weeks of drama in three House races
Democrats look to be headed to runoffs in three races for Republican-held seats that Hillary Clinton won in 2016 and the party has targeted to flip in November’s midterms.
National eyes were on Republican Rep. John Culberson’s 7th District in the Houston area, and specifically Laura Moser — the candidate the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee attacked as incapable of winning a general election over comments in articles the journalist and activist had written while living in Washington. Moser is now headed to a runoff against Lizzie Pannill Fletcher, who was the top vote-getter among seven Democratic candidates with 29 percent. Moser finished second with 24 percent.
In the 32nd District contest to take on GOP Rep. Pete Sessions for his Dallas-area seat, former NFL player Colin Allred led the way among seven Democrats with 39 percent. He will face Lillian Salerno, who finished second with 18 percent, in the runoff.
And in Republican Rep. Will Hurd’s 23rd District, former Air Force intelligence officer Gina Ortiz Jones, who is openly LGBTQ, was the clear Democratic leader with 41 percent. She will face Rick Treviño, who finished with 18 percent, in the runoff.
A Democratic gubernatorial runoff
Openly gay former Dallas County sheriff Lupe Valdez and Andrew White, the son of former Gov. Mark White, were the two clear frontrunners in a nine-person field to become the Democratic nominee to take on Republican Gov. Greg Abbott this fall.
But with such a divided field, neither could top 50 percent, according to a CNN projection, and the race is headed for a runoff.
Still, what looms over this year’s gubernatorial race is the big-name Democrats who didn’t run — including twin brothers Rep. Joaquin Castro and former Housing and Urban Development secretary Julian Castro.
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