By a 678-vote margin, Rogers will be the next state representative for the district that encompasses Brown, Callahan, Coleman, Eastland, Hood, Palo Pinto, Shackelford, and Stephens Counties.
Rogers won his home county, Palo Pinto, by roughly 800 votes and Francis won his, Eastland, by just under 500 votes.
Francis took the district’s most populous county, Hood, by about 1,500 votes, but Rogers edged out Francis in Brown County by 179 votes.
Among the remaining counties, Rogers outpaced Francis by 818 votes.
Rogers posted on Facebook after the results rolled in, “It is with great humility that I accept the charge given to me tonight by the people of House District 60. This is a victory for our entire region and for every small town in our district, and it would have never happened without the support and dedication of those who believed in our cause and worked relentlessly to do their part.”
“This has been a long and sometimes-arduous journey, but now it’s time to move forward and get to work! Thank you, and God Bless Texas,” he concluded.
Francis, congratulating Rogers, posted, “I pray that he will be filled with wisdom, discernment, and that he will be successful in delivering conservative legislation while in Austin. I am proud of the race we ran, we fought hard and left it all on the field.”
And after thanking his supporters and family, continued, “Texas needs all of us to continue the fight for less government and more freedom. Our values are worth defending. You can count on me to continue the fight along side you.”
Gobs of last-minute money was dumped into the race with Rogers receiving a nearly $40,000 in-kind TV buy from Abbott’s campaign, $21,000 for direct mail from the Texas Farm Bureau, and $10,000 in direct mail and $11,000 in social media advertising from the Texas Realtors PAC.
Francis, meanwhile, pulled in $23,500 in last-minute funds from various Wilks family members in addition to the $225,000 from his in-laws, conservative megadonors Farris and JoAnn Wilks, in mid-June. He also received a $10,000 election eve donation from San Antonio entrepreneur, James Leininger.
The race was one of the most heated this cycle, with candidates lobbing bombs at one another for the entirety of the runoff. But with the dust settled, and thanks to a big home-stretch push from Governor Abbott, Glenn Rogers will be representing HD 60 residents in Austin come 2021.
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Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson is a senior reporter for The Texan and an Ohio native who graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 2017. He is an avid sports fan who most enjoys watching his favorite teams continue their title drought throughout his cognizant lifetime. In his free time, you may find Brad quoting Monty Python productions and trying to calculate the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.
