Winners emerge from primary, three races in runoffs

By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press 

The field of six candidates for Coryell County judge has been honed down to two, current Coryell County District Clerk Janice Gray, and lifelong county resident and military veteran, Roger Miller. 
The final unofficial results from Tuesday’s primary showed that Gary received 1,135, or 23.22 percent of the votes, and Miller received 1,105, or 22.60 percent, with a margin of 30 votes separating them. The margin wasn’t quite as close between Miller and candidate Bob Harrell, who trailed the top two by a margin of only 75 votes. John Derrick received 853 votes, or 17.45 percent, with Alan Mathis receiving 600, or 12.57 percent of the votes, and Allen Wayne Avery receiving 116 votes, or 2.37 percent.
Gray and Miller are vying for the position presently held by longtime judge John Firth, who announced last summer that he would not run again. They, along with candidates in the races for District Clerk and County Treasurer, will head into a runoff to be held on May 22. 
In the race for the office of Coryell County District Clerk, Becky Moore and Jeremy Pruitt will move on to the runoff. Moore received 2.270 votes, or 48.55 percent, with Pruitt receiving 1,153 votes, or 24.66 percent. Kelly Caldwell Bragewitz received 1,094 votes and Joey Acfalle received 159 votes.
Cindy Hitt and Randi McFarlin have also advanced to the May 22 runoff, the two of them coming out ahead of Misti Maxwell Morris. McFarlin received 38.04 percent, or 1,749 votes, and Hitt received 35.82 percent, or 1,647 votes. 
Several other county races were decided on Tuesday. Jim Caldwell secures his spot as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3, garnering 52.39 percent of the vote, ahead of Doran Belknap Jr. and Gary Stiles.
Daren Moore, longtime county commissioner for precinct 2, will remain in office, receiving 55.04 percent, or 530 votes, ahead of challenger Scott Weddle, who received 44.96 percent, or 433 votes.
County Commissioner for precinct 4, Ray Ashby, will now head into his first full term of office starting Jan. 1, 2019. He received 63.52 percent of the votes at 773, besting candidate Keith Taylor, who received 36.48 percent, or 444 votes. 
County unopposed incumbents included county court-at-law judge John Lee; Justice of the Peace Precinct 1 John B. Guinn; Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, F.W. (Bill) Price; Justice of the Peace precinct 4, Coy Latham; County Clerk, Barbara Simpson. All will take their oaths of office and begin their terms on Jan. 1, 2019. 
A total of 5,040 voters went to the polls for the Republican and Democratic primary elections in Coryell County.