Brenda Lopez will be the new Precinct 2 DeWitt County Commissioner, according to unofficial election results.
Lopez defeated her opponent, Carl Smith, 333 to 206 votes or 62% to 38% in the May 26 Republican Party Primary Runoff Election. There will be no Democrat on the ballot in the Nov. 3 General Election, so the win places her in the Commissioners Court seat in January after she is sworn in.
There were no other local races on the ballot, but there were a few federal and statewide matches with candidates battling for the nominations of the Democratic and Republican Parties. Of DeWitt County’s 11,570 registered voters, 1,758 or 15% turned out during Early Voting and Election Day for the cumulative totals.
In the other races on the ballot, DeWitt County voted in lockstep with other voters across the state choosing the same candidates.
For United States Senator, retiring Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton overwhelmingly beat four-decade incumbent Senator John Cornyn, despite Paxton’s highly-publicized legal problems in recent years and his wife filing for divorce on Biblical grounds and citing infidelity. President Trump recently endorsed Paxton, giving him an apparent boost.
Lopez
In other Republican races, Mayes Middleton won the nomination for Texas Attorney General over Chip Roy; Bo French won the nomination for Railroad Commissioner over Jim Wright; and Thomas Smith won the nomination for Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 1 over Alison Fox.
For Democratic Party races, Vikki Goodwin won the nomination for Lieutenant Governor over Marcos Isaias Velez, and Nathan Johnson won the nomination for Attorney General over Joe Jaworski. They will face Republican candidates in the General Election.
After learning of the election results, Lopez thanked voters for their confidence in her.
“It is my profound honor to be your new County Commissioner for Precinct 2” Lopez wrote on a Facebook post. “Let’s get to work!”
The win by Lopez is historic because no other woman has served on the Commissioners Court since DeWitt County’s founding 180 years ago, although women have served in other elected roles such as county clerk, treasurer and justice of the peace.
DeWitt County was one of a few of Texas’ 254 counties that had not elevated a woman to the position of managing roads and bridges, according to research by Texas Woman’s University’s Jane Nelson Institute for Women’s Leadership. Most Texas counties already had elected women to county commissioner roles, the research indicated.
Kerr County was another holdout, not electing a woman as a county commissioner until 2023.
Women being elected as county commissioners began decades ago in larger counties like Travis County following Ann Richards election in governor in 1976.
