Late Tuesday night election results over the immense 31st Texas State Senatorial District showed Midland favorite son Kevin Sparks avoiding a May 24 runoff with Amarilloan Tim Reid.
With no Democrat in the contest, the winner of the Republican nomination will succeed the long-serving Sen. Kel Seliger of Amarillo, who, faced with redistricting that heavily weighted the district’s politics to the south, opted to retire from Austin’s fractitious political arena.
Sparks, an oilman who enjoyed powerful financial support from the district’s south end, had garnered 36,479 votes or 54 percent to Reid’s 16,562 votes or 24 percent.
Big Spring businesswoman Stormy Bradley and Amarillo attorney Jesse Quackenbush Jr. trailed with 10,137 votes or 15 percent and 4,445 votes or 7 percent, respectively.
State legislators last spring moved four counties out of the Panhandle and added 12 to the Permian Basin as the state’s population growth necessitated expanding the district to 45 counties.
Sparks said Tuesday night that he had hoped to avoid a runoff and was encouraged with his district-wide support. “We have been able to make a connection with people both in the north and south parts of the district, Amarillo as well as the rural areas north of there,” he said.
“They bought into our vision and were willing to work hard. They understand that we need more business people at the state level. Voters asked me how I would represent the agriculture, farming and ranching, the manufacturers and coffee shop owners and I said I’m a small businessman and I understand that we have a lot of the same struggles.”
Reid, a retired FBI agent and a preparatory school teacher in Canyon, said Tuesday evening that he was hoping to make the runoff and would seek a series of debates with Sparks. “I would emphasize my depth of understanding of the issues so that people could recognize who they were voting for and who could represeent them best,” Reid said.
