Republican Peter Flores pulled off an upset Tuesday night by defeating former U.S. Congressman Pete Gallego in their special election runoff for a Texas Senate seat.
Flores will finish the term of convicted felon Carlos Uresti as the next state senator for District 19.
Much of District 19 is located on the Texas-Mexico border, and both candidates agreed, each ballot cast could shape the future of the Lone Star State's approach on immigration reform.
The two candidates took two different paths leading up to Tuesday's special election.
Flores, a Republican and former state game warden, challenged Uresti in 2016, while Gallego, a Democrat, is a former state representative and U.S. congressman.
Both say property tax reform is a big deal.
"Everywhere we are going, no matter who you are, no matter where you live, big cities, small towns, we are being hammered, and while we want to pay our fair share the system is broke," Flores said.
Gallego said: "Some years ago we were funding 48% of the cost of public education at the state level now they are down to 38% which means the locals have to pick up their share which is why you see a lot of property tax increases in Bexar County and across the state."
There are 31 seats in the Texas Senate. 20 are held by Republicans, and 10 by Democrats. That leaves the one seat open that belonged to Uresti.
Gallego had hoped to keep the seat with the Democrats, but Flores flipped it to increase the number of Republican state senators to 21.