Texans vote in Senate runoff as virus rages

Voters on Tuesday were heading out to polls for runoff elections that include choosing a Democratic nominee in a US Senate race that offers the party another chance to break through in America's biggest red state.But it comes as Texas struggles to contain a raging coronavirus outbreak.The state has become one of the world's virus hot zones and is in far worse shape now than when the runoff was postponed in March.

Last week was the deadliest of the pandemic for Texas, and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has warned that the infection numbers will likely get even worse.At Houston's Metropolitan Multi-Service Center, a busy election precinct, in the city's posh River Oaks neighborhood, dozens of masked-up voters waited in the humid hot weather to cast their ballots.

"This is a catastrophic era we're living in. Is it not," asked Houston voter Joe Adams. " And I would think that if we can hang on to the right to vote during catastrophes, that would be a feather in all of our caps if we could maintain our cool."Elections judges inside sat behind protective shields. All wore masks, some even added gloves and face shields. Voting machines got prompt wipe downs after each person cast their electronic ballot.

Abbott did not include polling places in his recent statewide mask order, and unlike many states,Texas has fought efforts to expand mail-in balloting during the pandemic. More than 1 million ballots were cast in early voting - higher than most primary runoffs in recent years - but only a fraction of the state's 16 million registered voters.

The election will settle primary battles that include US President Donald Trump's former doctor, Ronny Jackson, trying to win the Republican nomination for a rural congressional seat.But the biggest race is who Democrats will pick as their Senate nominee to face Republican incumbent John Cornyn - who isn't as threatened as several GOP senators in battleground states, but is confronting new signs of vulnerability in rapidly changing Texas.

The Senate runoff is between Air Force veteran MJ Hegar, who narrowly lost a race for a House seat in 2018, and state Sen. Royce West, who if he wins would become Texas' first Black U.S. senator.That leaves for Democrats a choice over whether their best bet for an upset is the top vote-getter in the March primary who is backed by Senate Democrats' campaign arm, or a historic nominee in West, who has racked up endorsements from his former rivals in the race and Texas lawmakers.

For now, both remain underdogs against Cornyn, a three-term Senate veteran who has a hefty stockpile of campaign dollars.But the race is still the biggest reelection test of his career as Trump's sagging poll numbers stir GOP anxiety, two years after Republican Sen. Ted Cruz only narrowly held onto to his own seat in Texas.

(Image Credit: AP)