Early voting begins Tuesday in runoff election

Gov. Greg Abbott has set Feb. 23 as the date for the House District 68 special election runoff to replace former state Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, who is now in the Texas Senate.
Early voting for the House District 68 runoff will begin Tuesday, Feb. 16.
Wilbarger County Clerk Jana Kennon said that early voting will be in the Wilbarger Auditorium from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. The election will be held the following Tuesday.
The runoff candidates are David Spiller, a Jacksboro attorney and school board trustee, and Craig Carter, a former candidate for overlapping state Senate District 30. Spiller finished first in the five-way special election last month, getting 44% of the vote. Carter was the runner-up with 18%.
Since the Jan. 23 special election, the two other Republicans who ran in that contest, John Berry and Jason Brinkley, have thrown their support to Spiller.
As first reported by the Vernon Record, Carter, lost his 4-year-old daughter and mother-in-law in a car accident on Sunday, Jan. 31. That accident also left his 3-year-old son critically injured.
See more from the candidates on page 8 of  the latest online and print edition.
Springer gave up the HD68 seat after winning the special election runoff late last year to replace Pat Fallon in the state Senate following the Prosper Republican’s
election to the U.S. House. The race to fill Springer’s House seat is happening quickly because the legislative session is already underway — it started on Jan. 12.