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Paxton wins Texas Senate seat
By Bill Conrad, bconrad@starlocalnews.com, @Bill_PlanoStar on Twitter
Current state Rep. Ken Paxton will be the next state senator in District 8.
Paxton, a McKinney resident, received 62 percent of the vote to win the seat. Democratic challenger Jack Ternan received 35 percent of the vote, while Libertarian Ed Kless received 3 percent.
After the results were announced, Paxton said he was happy with his campaign and wanted to thank his staff and volunteers for all their hard work. He said even though the campaign period lasted more than a year, he enjoyed it.
With fewer members in the Texas Senate than the Texas House of Representatives -- 31 compared to 150 -- Paxton said he believes he will have more opportunities to get things done while in session.
Even though he lost, Ternan said he was happy with his campaign.
"I am very proud of the work that my campaign staff and volunteers put in," Ternan said. "I want to thank everybody who voted for me and hopefully Senator-elect Paxton will listen to all voices in the district."
Ternan said he knew his odds were long in a county that leans as heavily Republican as Collin, but said he had a good reason for running for office.
"I got a great education in Plano public schools, and I saw the budget cuts the Republican legislators were voting for, and I figured somebody needed to step up and say, 'That is wrong,'" he said. "So I decided to put my voice out there. The first thing you have to do is make people aware of what is going on at the Capitol, and that is not going to happen unless you have alternative voices out there."
The three candidates were running for the seat currently held by Republican Florence Shapiro, who declined to seek re-election. Shapiro was first elected to the state senate in 1993.
Paxton will be sworn into office Jan. 8.
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