Trump wins presidency

Heading into Tuesday’s presidential/vice-presidential election, pollsters and news pundits predicted the U.S. president’s race to be razor thin with the winning candidate needing 270 electoral votes.

It was also predicted there were seven key battleground states, including Georgia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada, and whomever won the majority of those states would likely be elected the 47th president.

As the voting results started coming in on Tuesday evening, both the Republican nominees Donald Trump and J.D. Vance and the Democrat nominees vice-president Kamala Harris and Tim Walz were going as predicted.

However as the night wore on, Trump/Vance began to take the lead and by 2 a.m. early Wednesday morning, the states of North Carolina, Georgia and Pennsylvania had gone to Trump pushing him over the required 270 electoral votes.

Shortly after, Wisconsin, Michigan and later in the week Nevada went for Trump and on the weekend Arizona was declared for the Republican candidate giving him a sweep of all seven battleground states.

Regarding the votes in Texas, Trump carried the state with 56.22% of the votes, while Harris had 42.38%.

Lavaca County and DeWitt counties also overwhelmingly went for Trump with Lavaca County voters giving him 87.83% and DeWitt County reporting 83.19% of the votes.

In the race for Texas state senator, incumbent Republican Ted Cruz held off Democrat challenger Collin Allred.

Cruz carried the state voters with 53.12%, while Allred received 44.49%.

Lavaca County voters also favored Cruz with 85.57% to Allred’s 13.22%. DeWitt County voters also went for Cruz giving him 80.47% and Allred 18.00% of the votes.

Regarding the race for U.S. Representative, District 27, incumbent Republican Michael Cloud maintained his position receiving 66.08% of the district’s votes, while Democrat challenger Tanya Lloyd gathered 33.92%.

Lavaca County voters went with Cloud giving him 88.88% to Lloyd getting 11.12%. DeWitt County voters also favored Cloud with 84.59% to Lloyd’s 15.41%.

State Elections

Incumbent Christi Craddick (Rep) maintained her seat as Texas Railroad Commissioner getting 55.69% of the statewide votes, while challenger Katherine Culbert (Dem) got 38.94%.

Lavaca County voters also went with Craddick with 86.86%, while Culbert got 10.56%. DeWitt County voters also supported Craddick with 82.61% to Culbert’s 14.64%.

Republican A. J. Louderback outdistanced Democrat Stephanie R. Bassham getting 83.92% of the district votes to 16.08%.

Louderback also won the votes of Lavaca and DeWitt county voters with 86.64% and 83.92%, respectively.

Local Elections

Hallettsville ISD voters rejected the $25.956 million proposed bond by the school district that would fund the building of a new gymnasium/multi-purpose facility.

The unofficial vote total included 2,317 (59.03%) against, while 1,608 (40.97%) voted for the bond.

In the Yoakum ISD, the vote to ratify the ad valorem tax rate of $1.00059 in the district for the current year passed with 51.56% (726) voting for approving the rate, while 48.44% (682) voted against.

Regarding contested races in the Vysehrad ISD Board of Trustees election, incumbent Agnes Greer retained her Place 3 chair defeating Stacie JanakOates with 284 (68.93) of the votes to Janak-Oates’ getting 128 (31.07%).

Challenger Liz Baker unseated incumbent trustee Laura Roberson getting 276 (66.99%) of the votes to 136 (33.01%).

All county positions up for election were unopposed with Edward Pustka (Commissioner Pct. 1), Kenny Siegel (Commissioner Pct. 3) and James Foster (JP Pct. 1).

The four uncontested constable positions were Mike Buchanek (Pct. 1); David W. Beyer (Pct. 2), Larry W. Hlavac (Pct. 3) and Kerry L. Peterson (Pct. 4).

In addition to other uncontested races James M. Reeves (county attorney), Steven E. Greenwell (sheriff), Deborah A. Sevcik (county tax assessor-collector) and Tammy Koerth (county treasurer) were elected.

In DeWitt County, the uncontested election went to incumbents Carl R. Bowen (sheriff), A. Jay Condie (county attorney), Ashley D. Mraz (county tax assessor-collector) and commissioners Ryan Varela (Pct. 1) and James Kaiser (Pct. 3).

Desirae Poth-Garibay won the unexpired term for county treasurer.

All vote counts are considered unofficial until they have been canvassed.