House District 12 candidates headed for a runoff
BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – In District 12, Kyle Kacal made the decision not to run for reelection after 11 years in Austin, representing much of rural Brazos County and the Eastern Brazos Valley.
The three men who wanted to take Kacal’s place on the Republican ticket included Ben Bius, Trey Wharton, and John Harvey Slocum.
While results haven’t been finalized yet, two candidates are headed for a runoff.
Wharton came away with the most votes. Although only 90 votes separate Bius and Harvey-Slocum, it looks like Bius will face off with Wharton come May.
KBTX spoke with Ben Bius who comments on his next steps.
“I feel like we put together an excellent campaign to make it into the runoff. We had really good people that are very loyal. The main thing right now is to regroup, evaluate, see how best to present our case to the people that I’m the best person for the job,” said Bius.
Bius thanks everyone who voted for him and commends John Harvey Slocum and the Slocum family. He said they are lovely people and he has nothing but respect for John Harvey Slocum.
Brazos County Elections Administrator, Trudy Hancock, says even though the race was close, she doesn’t anticipate a vote recount.
“Recounts have to be requested unless it is a tie. If it’s a tie, there is an automatic recount. But if it’s not a tie, then a candidate has to request that. But we do a required partial manual count after every election so we’ll have a certain percentage of our ballots that we count by hand. So yes, that will begin Friday and we’ll do those in-house,” said Hancock.
KBTX did reach out to John Harvey Slocum Wednesday about his plans but did not hear back.
The runoff election will take place on May 28.
