Vidor school bonds pass, Cruz keeps senate seat

Orange County election finals were in before 9 Tuesday night with the Vidor school bond issue passing locally. Donald Trump was leading in early national returns and enough returns in Texas were in for media to call a victory for incumbent Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, against Democrat Colin Allred.

The Orange County Elections office under the direction of Donna Alford reported the county has 56,515 registered voters with 36,450 voting for 64.5 percent. Of those votes, 6,935 were cast on Election Day. The rest of the votes came from early ballots.

All the local county offices had incumbent Republican officials running unopposed. However, there were some areas of the county with their own races.

The Orangefield school board had one contested race after the incumbent chose not to run for the Place III at-large spot. Jude Grafagnino won with 1,708 votes, or 49.74 percent. Dustin Loga had 890 or 25.92 percent, and Robert Lasseigne Jr. had 836 or 24.34 percent.

Incumbents Bo Henley and Chris Kovatch ran unopposed.

The Vidor school bond election was for $98.4 million to build new schools and renovate other facilities. Voters approved the bond 5,215 in favor and 4,449 opposed. A total off 9,664 votes were cast.

The Orange County Emergency Management District No. 1, which provides fire and rescue work for the city of Vidor and areas around Vidor, drew 10,869 voters to choose two of three at-large candidates to sit on the board of directors. Ronnie Hurrera led the voting with 5,147, or 47.3 percent to be elected. Wyatt Boyett also won a seat with 4,381 votes or 40.31 percent. Rose Luce had 1,341 votes for 12.34 percent.

The Orange County Emergency Services District No. 3 for the Little Cypress area had a total of 2,825 votes cast to elect two of four candidates to the district's board of directors. Scott McDonald won with 1,237 votes, or 43.79 percent. Also winning a seat was Cathy Drake with 623 votes, or 22.05 percent. Others were Jeremy Kent Nichols with 571, or 20.21 percent, and Jeff Braus with 394, or 13.95 percent.

For U.S. Representative District 14, incumbent Republican Randy Weber won reelection. Orange County voters cast 29,523 votes for him with 5,629 for Democrat Rhonda Hart.

Donald Trump has carried Orange County by more than 80 percent all three times he has run for the office of President of the United States. This year the Republican carried Orange County by 83 percent, with 30,183 votes compared to 5,931 for Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz.