After Super Tuesday, the unofficial vote tally in the Republican state House primary in western Travis County showed only one vote separating Justin Berry and Don Zimmerman, with some mail-in ballots and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
Each finished with about 22.9% of the vote, a dead heat for second behind Jennifer Fleck, who got 32.2%. Zimmerman, a former city council member, led Berry, a police officer, by one vote.
That outcome flipped after final results were posted to the Travis County Clerk’s website yesterday. Berry beat Zimmerman by 4,105 votes to 4,104.
That means Berry will head to a runoff against Fleck in May. From there, the winner will run against Rep. Vikki Goodwin, a one-term Democrat.
Berry, who waited more than a week for news of whether he would advance to the runoff, said in a statement yesterday, “I want to send a huge thank you to everyone who helped our campaign cross the finish line, but especially my beautiful bride Jamie who has supported me through this whole campaign!”
His opponent in the upcoming runoff, Jennifer Fleck, is running largely on a platform of reining in Austin’s school board, which recently approved a new sexual education curriculum.
Fleck earlier this week picked up the endorsement of her one-time opponent Aaron Reitz, who won 15% of the primary vote.
Berry is endorsed by the Austin Police Association, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, and other law enforcement associations.
In an interview with Honest Austin last month, Berry laid out his views on property taxes, public safety, criminal justice reform, and transit infrastructure in Travis County.
