It’s runoff day in Houston, San Antonio. Here’s what you need to know.

Voters in Houston and across Texas go to the polls today to decide a handful of key primary runoffs.

Polling stations will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Runoff elections typically see low turnout, and less than 1% of Harris County’s 2.5 million registered voters had cast early ballots as of Thursday, according to unofficial county totals. This means that a relatively small number of votes could decide several races.

The last two legislative sessions – under Phelan’s leadership – have been widely considered the most conservative in state history, with House members supporting abortion bans, new LGBTQ restrictions, a crackdown on diversity initiatives at universities and an attempt to begin expelling those suspected of being so. entered the country illegally.

Phelan is not the only Republican to fend off a challenge from the right. In San Antonio, U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzales is hoping to beat Brandon Herrera, a right-wing social media personality known as “AK Guy.” Gonzales, first elected to Congress in 2020, is the only Republican congressional candidate in Texas facing a runoff after Herrera and three other GOP challengers gained enough support in the March 5 primary to run. prevent claiming the nomination purely and simply.

Republican critics have called for cross-party votes from Gonzales to codify the right to same-sex marriage and strengthen background checks on gun buyers for young adults after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which is in his district. But Gonzales has the support of Gov. Greg Abbott and in recent days fielded a robocall from actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey.

Rural Texas voters will also decide six Republican runoffs in which Abbott attempts to unseat incumbents who opposed his vision of school vouchers, which would provide money to public taxpayers for tuition and fees. private school expenses.

In Houston, State Rep. Jarvis Johnson and State Sen. Molly Cook are running as Democratic candidates for the District 15 Senate seat. After winning a special election earlier this month, Cook will serve the remainder of John Whitmire’s term. Whitmire left the seat vacant when he took office as Houston mayor in January. The issue now is who will be the Democratic Party nominee to fill this seat after this year.

Johnson’s former partner, Houston Community College board member Charlene Ward Johnson, will face affordable housing consultant Angeanette Thibodeaux in a race to fill the Northwest Houston House seat that Jarvis Johnson holds released to run for Senate.

Democratic voters in State House District 146 will choose between incumbent state Rep. Shawn Thierry and union organizer Lauren Ashley Simmons in a race partly centered on Thierry’s controversial choice last year to vote with Republicans to ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Thierry is vying for a fifth term serving the majority-minority district in south and southwest Houston, which stretches from Westwood to the historically black Sunnyside neighborhood. The district is heavily Democratic; it was a victory that President Joe Biden achieved by nearly 80 percentage points.

Vivian King and Gemayel Haynes are competing to be Democrats’ judicial nominees for the newly created 486th District Court seat. King is a top aide to District Attorney Kim Ogg, while Haynes represents indigent defendants for the Harris County Public Defender’s Office.

Jen Rice, Cayla Harris, Benjamin Wermund, Taylor Goldenstein and Edward McKinley contributed to this report.