Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday announced a special election in May to fill the Texas Senate seat left empty by Brandon Creighton, the Houston-area Republican who will lead the Texas Tech University System.
Candidates for the Senate District 4 election must file to run by March 3 and early voting will begin April 20 ahead of the May 2 election, according to Abbott’s office.
The seat has been vacant since Oct. 2, when Creighton formally resigned from the Senate in a letter to Abbott. Though the district will go without representation for at least seven months, the Legislature is not expected to convene during that period, with the next regular legislative session set to begin in January 2027.
Longtime Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon has launched a bid for the seat with endorsements from Creighton, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who presides over the Legislature’s upper chamber, and U.S. Rep. Morgan Luttrell, R-Magnolia.
The district covers the vast majority of Montgomery County and a slice of east Harris County. It also runs to the Gulf Coast, taking in all of Chambers County and a part of Jefferson County reaching Texas’ eastern border.
Whoever wins the special election will serve the remainder of Creighton’s term, which ends in January. Voters will separately decide next November who will fill the seat for a full four-year term running until the start of 2031.
Senate District 4 is all but certain to remain under GOP control: Republican Donald Trump carried the district with two-thirds of the vote in 2024.
Disclosure: Texas Tech University System has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.
