No Surprises in Texas Primary

Texas Sen. John Cornyn easily survived a primary challeng to secure the GOP nomination for a third term, while Republican Greg Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis coasted in their gubernatorial primaries in the Lone Star State on Tuesday.

news3blog.blogspot.com called the race for Cornyn shortly after polls closed, reporting the incumbent senator received well over the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a runoff in May.

Cornyn's closest challenger in the primary was Rep. Steve Stockman, who seemed poised to at least cause a headache for Cornyn by running as a more conservative alternative in the deeply red state. But a lack of fundraising and absence from the campaign trail left Stockman supporters questioning why he decided to leave his seat in the House.

Likewise, neither Abbott nor Davis faced serious challenges in their respective gubernatorial primaries. Abbot, the state's attorney general, earned more than 90 percent of GOP support, according to the AP.

State Sen. Wendy Davis also cruised to an easy victory in the Democratic primary. She now has the much more difficult task of defeating a Republican in Texas, where a Democrat has not won statewide office since 1994.

George P. Bush, son of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also won the Republican primary in the race for Texas Land Commissioner, paving his way to win the seat that has traditionally served as a launching pad for state politics.

The Texas contests marked the first primary of the 2014 midterms.

First published March 4 2014, 6:29 PM

Andrew Rafferty

Andrew Rafferty has been a political reporter for NBCNews.com since 2013. Rafferty writes and reports on politics for the web, and shoots and produces video for all NBC platforms. Prior to joining NBCNews.com, Rafferty was a campaign reporter covering the 2012 presidential election. Rafferty was on the road for both the Republican primaries and general election, providing content for both the web and television. Rafferty began at NBC News through a fellowship at 'Meet The Press.' He is from Buffalo, N.Y., and attended John Carroll University in Ohio.

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