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Texas' 34th Congressional District election, 2024 (March 5 Democratic primary)

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Texas' 34th Congressional District
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Democratic primary
Republican primary
General election
Election details
Filing deadline: December 11, 2023
Primary: March 5, 2024
Primary runoff: May 28, 2024
General: November 5, 2024
How to vote
Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Voting in Texas
Race ratings
Cook Political Report: Lean Democratic
DDHQ and The Hill: Likely Democratic
Inside Elections: Lean Democratic
Sabato's Crystal Ball: Lean Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
U.S. Senate battlegrounds
U.S. House battlegrounds
Federal and state primary competitiveness
Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2024
See also
Texas' 34th Congressional District
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Texas elections, 2024
U.S. Congress elections, 2024
U.S. Senate elections, 2024
U.S. House elections, 2024

A Democratic Party primary took place on March 5, 2024, in Texas' 34th Congressional District to determine which Democratic candidate would run in the district's general election on November 5, 2024.

Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez Jr. advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34.

All 435 seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans had a 220 to 212 majority with three vacancies.[1] As of June 2024, 45 members of the U.S. House had announced they were not running for re-election. To read more about the U.S. House elections taking place this year, click here.

In the 2022 election in this district, the Democratic candidate won 52.7%-44.2%. Daily Kos calculated what the results of the 2020 presidential election in this district would have been following redistricting. Joe Biden (D) would have defeated Donald Trump (R) 57.3%-41.8%.[2]

Candidate filing deadline Primary election General election
December 11, 2023
March 5, 2024
November 5, 2024


A primary election is an election in which registered voters select a candidate that they believe should be a political party's candidate for elected office to run in the general election. They are also used to choose convention delegates and party leaders. Primaries are state-level and local-level elections that take place prior to a general election. Texas utilizes an open primary system. Voters do not have to register with a party in advance in order to participate in that party's primary. The voter must sign a pledge stating the following (the language below is taken directly from state statutes)[3]

“ The following pledge shall be placed on the primary election ballot above the listing of candidates' names: 'I am a (insert appropriate political party) and understand that I am ineligible to vote or participate in another political party's primary election or convention during this voting year.'[4] ”

For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.

This page focuses on Texas' 34th Congressional District Democratic primary. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary election

Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34

Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez Jr. advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House Texas District 34 on March 5, 2024.

Candidate
%
Votes
✔
Image of Vicente Gonzalez Jr.
Vicente Gonzalez Jr.
 
100.0
 
27,745

Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source

Total votes: 27,745
Candidate Connection = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.

Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Vicente Gonzalez Jr.

Image of Vicente Gonzalez Jr.

WebsiteFacebookTwitter

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: Yes

Political Office: 

Biography:  Gonzalez obtained a bachelor's degree from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a law degree from Texas Wesleyan School of Law. Before his election to Congress, Gonzalez worked as an attorney in private practice.


Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Gonzalez said he had a record of fighting to support his community. Gonzalez said he "fought to give working families and consumers a strong voice in court" as an attorney and that he was "delivering billions to support our schools, families, and small businesses" as a member of Congress.

Gonzalez said he was driven to succeed by the values he learned growing up in a military family. Gonzalez said his mother's example inspired him to return to school to obtain his GED and bachelor's and law degrees, as well as to become a member of Congress.

Gonzalez said his policy priorities included expanding access to education, ensuring Medicare and Social Security remained solvent, and bringing jobs to South Texas.

Show sources

Sources: Vicente Gonzalez 2024 campaign website, "Meet Vicente," accessed June 10, 2024; Vicente Gonzalez 2024 campaign website, "Issues," accessed June 10, 2024; Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, "GONZALEZ, Vicente, Jr.," accessed June 10, 2024

This information was current as of the candidate's run for U.S. House Texas District 34 in 2024.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Texas

Election information in Texas: March 5, 2024, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

  • In-person: Feb. 5, 2024
  • By mail: Postmarked by Feb. 5, 2024
  • Online: N/A

Was absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

No

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

  • In-person: Feb. 23, 2024
  • By mail: Received by Feb. 23, 2024
  • Online: Feb. 23, 2024

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

  • In-person: March 5, 2024
  • By mail: Postmarked by March 5, 2024

Was early voting available to all voters?

N/A

What were the early voting start and end dates?

Feb. 20, 2024 to March 1, 2024

Were all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, was a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When were polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (CST/MST)


Campaign finance

Name Party Receipts* Disbursements** Cash on hand Date
Vicente Gonzalez Jr. Democratic Party $3,109,468 $3,131,362 $282,060 As of December 31, 2024

Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2024. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee."
** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

  • District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
  • Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2024 U.S. House elections in the state.
  • Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
  • State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.


Below was the map in use at the time of the election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

2023_01_03_tx_congressional_district_034.jpg
See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2024

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Texas.

Texas U.S. House competitiveness, 2014-2024
Year Districts/
offices 		Seats Open seats Candidates Possible primaries Contested Democratic primaries Contested Republican primaries % of contested primaries Incumbents in contested primaries % of incumbents in contested primaries
2024 38 38 3 160 76 16 23 51.3% 19 54.3%
2022 38 38 6 222 76 17 27 57.9% 19 59.4%
2020 36 36 6 231 72 24 26 69.4% 18 60.0%
2018 36 36 8 212 72 25 21 63.9% 15 53.6%
2016 36 36 2 127 72 13 20 45.8% 19 55.9%
2014 36 36 1 100 72 6 13 26.4% 12 34.3%

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Texas in 2024. Information below was calculated on 1/29/2024, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

In 2024, 164 candidates filed to run for Texas’ 38 U.S. House districts, including 63 Democrats and 101 Republicans. That was 4.3 candidates per district, the lowest number since 2016, when 3.5 candidates ran.

In 2022, the first election after the number of congressional districts in Texas increased from 36 to 38, 5.8 candidates ran per district. In 2020, 6.4 candidates ran, and 5.8 candidates ran in 2018.

The 164 candidates who ran in 2024 were also the fewest total number to run since 2016, when 127 candidates ran. One hundred candidates ran for Texas’ then-36 districts in 2014, the fewest in the decade, while 231 ran in 2020, the decade-high.

Three seats were open. That was the fewest since 2016, when two seats were open. Six seats were open in 2022 and 2020, and eight were in 2018—the decade-high.

Reps. Kay Granger (R-12th) and Michael Burgess (R-26th) retired from public office. Rep. Colin Allred (D-32nd) didn't seek re-election in order to run for the U.S. Senate. Fourteen candidates—10 Democrats and 4 Republicans—ran for the open 32nd district, the most candidates who ran for a seat in 2024.

Thirty-nine primaries—16 Democratic and 23 Republican—were contested this year. That was the fewest since 2016, when 33 were contested. There were 44 contested primaries in 2022, 50 in 2020, and 46 in 2018.

Nineteen incumbents—six Democrats and thirteen Republicans—faced primary challengers this year. That was the same number as 2022, and one more than in 2020.

Three districts—the 9th, the 20th, and the 30th—were guaranteed to Democrats because no Republicans filed to run. Five were guaranteed to Republicans because no Democrats filed to run—the 1st, the 11th, the 13th, the 19th, and the 25th.


Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2024 elections, based on results from the 2020 and 2016 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+9. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 9 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Texas' 34th the 137th most Democratic district nationally.[5]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2020 presidential election would have been in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by Daily Kos.

2020 presidential results in Texas' 34th based on 2024 district lines
Joe Biden Democratic Party Donald Trump Republican Party
57.3% 41.8%

Inside Elections Baselines

See also: Inside Elections

Inside Elections' Baseline is a figure that analyzes all federal and statewide election results from the district over the past four election cycles. The results are combined in an index estimating the strength of a typical Democratic or Republican candidate in the congressional district.[6] The table below displays the Baseline data for this district.

Inside Elections Baseline for 2024
Democratic Baseline Democratic Party Republican Baseline Republican Party Difference
59.3 37.9 D+21.4

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Texas, 2020

Texas presidential election results (1900-2020)

  • 16 Democratic wins
  • 15 Republican wins
Year 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Winning Party D D D D D D D R D D D D D R R D D D R D R R R R R R R R R R R
See also: Party control of Texas state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Texas' congressional delegation as of May 2024.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Texas
Party U.S. Senate U.S. House Total
Democratic 0 12 12
Republican 2 25 27
Independent 0 0 0
Vacancies 0 1 1
Total 2 38 40

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Texas' top four state executive offices as of May 2024.

State executive officials in Texas, May 2024
Office Officeholder
Governor Republican Party Greg Abbott
Lieutenant Governor Republican Party Dan Patrick
Secretary of State Republican Party Jane Nelson
Attorney General Republican Party Ken Paxton

State legislature

Texas State Senate

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 11
     Republican Party 19
     Other 0
     Vacancies 1
Total 31

Texas House of Representatives

Party As of February 2024
     Democratic Party 64
     Republican Party 86
     Other 0
     Vacancies 0
Total 150

Trifecta control

The table below shows the state's trifecta status from 1992 until the 2024 election.

Texas Party Control: 1992-2024
Three years of Democratic trifectas  •  Twenty-two years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Governor D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
Senate D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R
House D D D D D D D D D D D R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R R

Ballot access

The table below details filing requirements for U.S. House candidates in Texas in the 2024 election cycle. For additional information on candidate ballot access requirements in Texas, click here.

Filing requirements for U.S. House candidates, 2024
State Office Party Signatures required Filing fee Filing deadline Source
Texas U.S. House Democratic or Republican 2% of votes cast for governor in the district in the last election, or 500, whichever is less $3,125.00 12/11/2023 Source
Texas U.S. House Unaffiliated 5% of all votes cast for governor in the district in the last election, or 500, whichever is less N/A 12/11/2023 Source

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A majority in the U.S. House when there are no vacancies is 218 seats.
  2. ↑ Daily Kos, "Daily Kos Elections' 2020 presidential results by congressional district, for new and old districts," accessed September 15, 2022
  3. ↑ Texas Statutes, "Section 172.086," accessed October 7, 2024
  4. ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. ↑ Cook Political Report, "The 2022 Cook Partisan Voting Index (Cook PVI℠)," accessed January 10, 2024
  6. ↑ Inside Elections, "Methodology: Inside Elections’ Baseline by Congressional District," December 8, 2023


Texas' current delegation to the United States Congress
Senators
John Cornyn (R)
Ted Cruz (R)
Representatives
District 1
District 2
District 3
District 4
District 5
District 6
District 7
District 8
District 9
Al Green (D)
District 10
District 11
District 12
District 13
District 14
District 15
District 16
District 17
District 18
Vacant
District 19
District 20
District 21
Chip Roy (R)
District 22
District 23
District 24
District 25
District 26
District 27
District 28
District 29
District 30
District 31
District 32
District 33
District 34
District 35
District 36
District 37
District 38
Republican Party (27)
Democratic Party (12)
Vacancies (1)


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