Although Lieutenant Governor-elect Dan Patrick, Comptroller-elect Glenn Hegar, and Attorney General-elect Ken Paxton were not with us in Austin last night, they still had plenty to celebrate at their own parties as they all trounced their opponents. Lt. Governor-elect Dan Patrick won his race by almost 20% and Comptroller-elect Hegar and Attorney General-elect Paxton both bested their opponent by margins in excess of 20%. All three of the candidates decided they wished to celebrate closer to home to personally thank their many supporters that stuck with them on their long journey.

Chairman Munisteri issued the following statement regarding the huge wins: “Despite the Democrats loudly pronouncing that they had a good chance of beating Senator Patrick and mounting a serious challenger to run against him, our Lt.Governor-elect proved them 100% wrong, and did so in dramatic fashion by crushing his opponent Senator Leticia Van De Putte and proving that the vast majority of Texans supported his campaign platform. Likewise, our Comptroller-elect, Glenn Hegar, crushed his opposition despite the fact that his opponent mounted an aggressive television ad campaign against him. Our Attorney General-elect, Ken Paxton, had to cope with the fact that his opponent had a famous name and vigorously campaigned against him, launching a continuous barrage of negativity his way. The Attorney General-elect, who won a spirited and hotly contested primary race, proved that the majority of voters support solid conservative views and trust Senator Paxton to be our next Attorney General. I wish to congratulate all three of our nominees and the RPT looks forward to working with them when they assume office.”

The RPT would also like to congratulate three newly elected State Representatives who won districts that were previously held by Democrats. In the Houston area, Gilbert Pena won a huge upset by wining his race for House District 144. Pena won a district previously held by Ken Legler but which the party lost in 2012. Likewise another underdog candidate Rick Galindo ousted his opponent to take back the seatJohn Garza won in 2010 but lost in 2012. To cap it all off, Wayne Faircloth won a seat not held by Republicans in recent election cycles. Faircloth won House District 23 which had previously been held by Democrat incumbent Craig Eiland. He faced the daunting task of defeating a longtime district judge who is well know in the area, but he ended up defeating her soundly. RPT Chairman Steve Munistericongratulated our newly elected representatives for their hard won victories which increases our number of seats in the House from 95 to 98. The most we have ever won previously was 99 in 2010. When the Legislature convenes in January, we will have the second highest number of Republicans in the State House in history and the RPT looks forward to working with our solid majority in the House and Senate to advance the agendas of Governor-elect Abbott and Lt. Governor-elect Patrick.

Munisteri also wanted to give a shout-out to Harris County Chairman, Paul Simpson, and Dallas County Chairman, Wade Emmert, for achieving two significant milestones. In Harris County, under the leadership of Chairman Simpson, who took office in June, the GOP swept every countywide race and delivered the county for both Governor-elect Abbott and Senator Cornyn. It is the first time Harris County has completely swept statewide and countywide races in several election cycles. Chairman Simpson has done an excellent job raising money, putting together a plan, and executing it brilliantly. In Dallas County, Chairman Wade Emmert and his organization were able to elect the first county wide Republican official in several election cycles by electing District Attorney Susan Hawk in an upset win. Chairman Munisteri thanks both of these Chairmen for helping the Republican Party reestablish itself in these two vital, urban counties.