While Texas Republicans dominated in competitive state House and Senate races Tuesday night, all seven incumbent Democratic lawmakers from Austin emerged with clear victories and secured another term in the Legislature.

All six Texas House incumbents from Austin won reelection last night, with three of them running unopposed. Incumbent state Sen. Sarah Eckhardt was also unopposed for District 14.

Here are each of the legislators from Austin who will serve a term in the state Capitol next beginning January, as per the complete but unofficial election results:

Senate District 14: Sen. Sarah Eckhardt unopposed in reelection bid

State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt, D-Austin, will serve in the Capitol for a second four-year term. The former Travis County judge ran unopposed in District 14 — made up of most of Austin, north to Pflugerville and much of Manor — and received over 320,000 votes, results show.

Eckhardt, an attorney who was first elected in 2020, has focused on voters’ rights, health care, water policy and criminal justice, among other issues, during her time in public office. She serves on the Senate committees for Local Government, Transportation, Nominations and Veteran Affairs.

House District 46: Rep. Sheryl Cole sails to reelection

Democratic state Rep. Sheryl Cole edged out Republican Nicki Kosich with more than 73% of the vote for House District 46, which stretches from part of East Austin to a portion of Pflugerville, and borders Elgin. 

Cole, the first Black woman elected to the Austin City Council, joined the state House in 2018. The attorney by training was also Austin’s first African American female mayor pro tempore.

House District 47: Rep. Vikki Goodwin bests GOP challenger

A third-term Democrat, state Rep. Vikki Goodwin took 60% of the vote against Republican challenger Scott Firsing to continue representing Bee Cave and some Lake Travis communities in District 47. 

The small-business owner and real estate broker passed a drowning prevention law in 2023, and she has also passed legislation creating the Texas Food Security and Resiliency Council.

House District 48: Rep. Donna Howard enjoys definitive victory

Democratic state Rep. Donna Howard won in a landslide against Libertarian opponent Daniel Jerome McCarthy, picking up over 80% of the vote Tuesday. House District 48 encompasses West Lake Hills and Rollingwood, as well as parts of Southwest Austin. 

First elected in 2006, Howard has championed abortion rights and health care services for women as the chair of the Texas Women’s Health Caucus. She is also a former critical care nurse.

Democratic state Rep. Gina Hinojosa ran uncontested, receiving over 80,000 votes, results show. House District 49 runs between MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and Interstate 35, from North Austin to Sunset Valley.

Hinojosa chairs the state House Democratic Campaign Committee. A former civil rights attorney who got her start in politics on the Austin school board, Hinojosa has focused on public school funding and voters’ rights in recent sessions, leading the effort in 2023 against a school voucher proposal.

House District 50: Rep. James Talarico wins fourth term

Democratic state Rep. James Talarico ran unopposed for House District 50, which covers Northeast Austin and Pflugerville, securing over 48,000 votes, results show. A former public school teacher elected in 2018, Talarico has helped pass legislation to reform Texas’ school finance system and to provide funding for student mental health and character education programs.

Born in Round Rock, Talarico is currently training to become a preacher. He has championed a progressive approach to Christianity, ciritizing religious Republicans in the Legislature for legislation he calls “un-Christian.”

Democratic state Rep. Lulu Flores, an attorney who ran unopposed, received over 52,000 votes to continue representing District 51, which spans parts of East and Southeast Austin, for a second term.

Flores’ father helped found the League of Latin American Citizens, and she credits him with instilling in her a commitment to civil rights. She served as chief of staff to the first Mexican American woman elected to the Texas House.

After a recent frustrating workday, the only way I could resuscitate my mood was with a stiff gin martini and some premium oysters. I headed to a popular seafood bar where I found an impressive selection of oysters from New England and a few from the Gulf Coast. Alas, there were none of what I craved most: West Coast oysters — rich, sweet, and almost creamy. I asked the bartender about the availability of Pacific bivalves. The bartender hesitated before answering. “We do, but we don’t list them. We’re not supposed to serve West Coast oysters in Austin.” You see, Northern California and Washington oysters are illicit off-menu options at this particular Texas restaurant.

So I did what any self-respecting oyster lover would do; I ordered a dozen buttery California Kumamotos, feeling like a speakeasy renegade during Prohibition. But my curiosity was fully piqued. Why can’t Austin restaurants legally sell West Coast oysters?

The short answer is that West Coast oysters are illegal in Texas, thanks to an obscure law passed by the Texas Legislature back in 1989. “[It’s] the only state that I’m aware of that prohibits sales of Pacific oysters to consumers,” confirms Bobbi Hudson, executive director of the Pacific Shellfish Institute in Olympia, Washington.

What’s the rationale? Essentially, it was a precaution. Pacific oysters are considered an invasive species. “They’ve been shown to establish naturally reproducing populations outside their natural range,” Hudson says. So when West Coast oysters are introduced to new locations — say, Texas — through discarded oysters — the bivalves are quickly able to mate and produce baby oysters, expanding their population to the point where they outnumber the native breeds in the area.

Pacific Coast oysters are especially-effective “ecosystem engineers,” as Hudson puts it. They change their environments through their capabilities as filter feeders, removing algae, nutrients, and other particles from surrounding waters. They also carry microbes and bacteria on their shells that are foreign to new waters and can have negative effects on existing ecosystems, thus pushing out local aquatic life. As a result, throughout the world, Pacific oysters already “dominate global shellfish aquaculture production,” she says.

When the Texas law was established in 1989, the oyster restrictions in the state applied only to the oyster breed known as Pacific oysters, which originated in the waters surrounding Japan. Then, in 2021, the state decided to further protect Gulf oysters by passing a tighter law that banned any species that isn’t native to the Gulf, aka “controlled exotic species.” Under these restrictions the broad category Crassostrea virginica — also called the Eastern oyster (because they are, yes, found in the East Coast of North America) — are permitted. The distinction between Gulf and Eastern oysters is where the bivalves grow.

So per the rules, all West Coast oysters — from Kumamoto to Olympia — are illegal to source and sell in Texas.

But rules are often bent or broken.

Hudson is aware that some establishments still serve West Coast oysters in the state. But she isn’t too worried: “I would argue that the risk isn’t high,” referring to potentially introducing invasive species into Texas.

West Coast oysters “pop up more frequently” than you’d expect, says Brendan Yancy, founder of Austin Oyster Co., though businesses generally have to get a bit creative to acquire their black market bivalves. With wholesalers unwilling to skirt the law, restaurants often turn to the farms directly, says Yancy, and of those farms, there are only a small handful willing to risk their license by defying the state of Texas.

Some businesses will downplay said liability, insisting that Texas law enforcement doesn’t prioritize enforcing oyster provenance. However, Daniel Berg, owner and executive chef of Austin restaurant Bill’s Oyster, knows that those aren’t empty threats. “We recently had a Texas game warden come into the restaurant to check our tags and make sure we weren’t serving West Coast oysters,” he says, noting that they don’t. “I was pretty shocked by that.”

Berg also doesn’t feel limited by Texas’s regulations especially with the option to import East Coast oysters. He prefers Northeast ones because they’re “smaller and more briny,” while he feels the Gulf oysters are “larger and not as clean-tasting.” (He admits Gulf oysters are better for grilling and frying.)

Bill’s Oyster works with local seafood distributor Minamoto Foods, which has strong connections with oyster farms in New England and eastern Canada. Since Texas is so far away from those prime oyster regions, it’s hard to connect personally with these farmers. “Trusting and relying on [a distributor] is important,” Berg says.

Yancy, on the other hand, has family connections in the Northeast, which means access to farms in Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. It’s inherently the ethos of his business: “The whole concept is really bringing East Coast oysters to people in Austin,” he says of Austin Oyster Co. (The company grew and harvested its own oysters from Portland, Maine for the first time this fall season.)

Yancy does believe the viability of Texas oysters. “I’m rooting for Texas farms,” he says. The state’s oyster industry is far newer than its other counterparts, which puts farms like Texas Oyster Ranch, Jeri’s Oysters, and DJ’s Oyster Co. at a disadvantage. “They’ve got a lot of uphill battles against them,” he says, which puts the state’s oyster industry behind competitors in other states. Yancy notes that the Gulf’s warmer temperatures create a higher yield than the colder Northeastern waters, but because the state’s oyster farming infrastructure isn’t yet equipped to handle the volume, Texas has some catching up to do before they can meet the oyster farming scale the West Coast, East Coast, and even other Gulf regions like Louisiana.

Can there be a way to legally have West Coast oysters in Austin without becoming a shellfish outlaw? There aren’t any above-board answers just yet, but Hudson says that science may already have a solution. “From a biological perspective, there are ways to create organisms that can’t reproduce,” she says. “With Pacific oysters, it’s already routinely done around the world to control gonad development” — a process that, according to the University of Washington, involves stopping the maturation of the oyster eggs. The resulting reproductively-inactive “triploid” oyster happens to have more tender and flavorful meat year-round in addition to being unable to realistically reproduce (Read: less of a threat to Gulf oyster populations). Until genetically modified bivalves become more widely available, West Coast oysters are only available on an if-you-know-you-know basis. So keep your eyes peeled and your conversations with oyster bartenders flowing — you might just score a secret stash.

AUSTIN, Texas  — The Texas Supreme Court, the state’s court of last resort for civil matters, will likely remain an all-Republican court for now as all three incumbents were headed for wins Wednesday morning. 

According to The Associated Press, Republican incumbent Jimmy Blacklock has defeated Democrat DaSean Jones by 58% with almost all of the votes counted, Republican incumbent John Devine is heading for victory with a sizable lead over Democrat Christine Weems—but the race has yet to be called—and Republican incumbent Jane Bland fended off challenges by Democrat Bonnie Lee Goldstein and Libertarian David Roberson winning over 56% of the vote.

The Texas Supreme Court has nine justices, three of whom ran for reelection with opposition.

Devine was the only justice with a primary challenger. In March, he survived a challenge by Brian Walker, of the Second District Court of Appeals, by 1 percentage point.

Devine has been controversial. He has called church-state separation a “myth,” was the Tea Party candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, once called his GOP colleagues “brainwashed” in leaked audio and has claimed he was arrested 37 times at abortion protests in the 1980s.

Weems is a judge on the 281^st Civil District Court in Harris County. Her biography says she’s the daughter of immigrants who fled Vietnam when Saigon fell in 1975. Previously a trial attorney in personal injury civil law and civil trial law, in an election ad available on YouTube, Weems says she is a judge “who upholds the law” and lives “by a Texas code of ethics.”

Spectrum News 1 partner the Texas Tribune noted that Democrats targeted the court this election in hopes that backlash over rulings on abortion and LGBTQ+ issues would be enough to break up the Republican hold on the court.

Blacklock was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by Gov. Greg Abbott in 2018. He previously served as Abbott’s general counsel and in the Attorney General’s Office under then-AG Abbott.

Jones is a district court judge in Harris County. He’s been a judge on the 180^th District Court since 2019 and is a veteran. According to his biography, he’s the first combat veteran and minority to preside over the 180^th District Court.

Bland has served on the Texas Supreme Court since 2019. Prior to that, she was a justice on the First Court of Appeals for 15 years and served six years as a state district judge.

Dallas Judge Goldstein was elected to the 5^th District Court of Appeals in 2020. She was previously the presiding judge on of the 44^th Judicial District Court in Dallas County.

Libertarian Roberson has experience working as an attorney and as vice president of operations at Prime Tax Group. He identified the most pressing issues as abortion restrictions and I-35 corridor construction through Austin.