Today, September 29, voters in Senate District (SD) 30 in North Texas headed to the polls for a special election. The Senate seat opened up after Sen. Pat Fallon (R-Prosper) last month announced his plans to resign. Fallon was tapped by the Republican party to replace former U.S. Rep. John Ratcliffe on the ballot in the November general election for the 4th Congressional District of Texas, after Ratcliffe became the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) for the Trump administration. Gov. Greg Abbott quickly called for the special election even before Fallon's resignation was effected in the solidly Republican Senate district.

Here are the unofficial results of today's special election:

• Current state Rep. Drew Springer (R-Muenster) received 31.83% of the votes. Springer was endorsed by the outgoing Fallon along with several other members of the Texas Legislature.
• Beauty salon owner turned Republican activist Shelley Luther earned 31.7% of the votes. Luther gained national fame after she was arrested for violating business closure orders amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which Gov. Abbott scaled back immediately thereafter.
• Republican boot company owner Craig Carter brought in 5.53% of the votes.
• Republican Chris Watts who resigned as Mayor of Denton in order to vie for this seat received 6.28% of the votes.
• Republican consultant Andy Hopper received 3.59% of the votes.
• The lone Democratic candidate in the race, electrician Jacob Minter, earned 21.06% of the vote in this heavily Republican-leaning district.

The top two finishers, Springer and Luther, were separated by less than one hundred votes, out of more than 68,000 cast. Since no candidate earned more than 50% of the votes needed to win today, the top two finishers will move on to a runoff. A date for the runoff election has not yet been announced.