The Closest Race in America

As polls closed in Texas on March 3rd, all eyes were on the US Senate race, where Attorney General Ken Paxton was taking on incumbent Republican Senator John Cornyn in the primary. As the night went on, it became clear that the two would be locked into a runoff. Statewide, the two were separated by thousands of votes at the time publication.

Meanwhile, one down-ballot race is beginning to catch the eyes of pundits. In Kaufman County, just east of Dallas, a county-wide judge race finished the night with a mere 3 votes separating the winner from the loser, among nearly 13,000 votes cast.

Incumbent Republican Judge Bobby Rich declared victory on election night, surrounded by many local officials and law enforcement officers that had endorsed his campaign.

Judge Rich’s campaign focused on his background as police officer, a local pastor, and being a member of the community for over 30 years.

The challenger, Rob Farquharson, was backed by a large network of donors from around the state, and touted the backing of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, as well as several issue-based PACs. He first moved to the county 5 years prior, only months before his unsuccessful attempt to oust the District Attorney in a GOP primary.

As the night went on, it became clear that Farquharson’s support was rooted in areas of the county with the most recent growth, such as the city of Forney. Meanwhile, Judge Rich ran up the numbers in places where the average voter had put down deep roots, namely in the city of Kaufman.

It also became clear that Kaufman residents were in for a nail biter. While Farquharson led the early vote tally by 146 votes, every voting center that reported seemed to draw the results closer, until Judge Rich pulled ahead in the count just before 10 PM local time. The final voting center to report brought the election night tally to within three votes.

Then county needed time to receive any remaining mail-in ballots and verify the identities of provisional voters before formally declaring a winner in what was deemed one of the closest races in America that night.

After a week of checking ballots by hand and adding in verified provisional ballots, Judge Rich’s lead grew to 9 votes. With no further course of action, Rob Farquharson conceded the election, posting a statement to Facebook.

“God has something different for me,” Farquharson said in his statement, “although I thought this was His plan, last night He made it clear that it is not.”

This race served as a proxy for established conservatives and energetic outsiders, and was billed as such.

“The power of the Good Ole Boys is slipping,” Farquharson said, “these people threw everything that they could at me in this election and I lost by a mere nine votes.”

Despite any bad blood from the campaign trail, the challenger did offer his support of the incumbent as part of his concession.

“I have spoken to Judge Rich, congratulated him on his re-election, and told him that I will be praying for his success.”

Judge Rich posted a statement of his own after the final tally was announced, celebrating his victory and rededicating himself in service to the community.

“I want to thank the citizens of Kaufman County for all your support,” Judge Rich said, “this election proves that every vote counts!”

Every vote certainly did count in this election. Not every race is this close, but elections like these remind us why it is so important to get to the polls and to vote down the entire ballot.

With many elections in November likely to be close, this nail biter should serve as a wake up call to folks who are thinking about staying home on Election Day.