Tea party-backed Ted Cruz R beats Rhino Texas Lt. Gov. Dewhurst in runoff, wins GOP Senate nomination

SAN ANTONIO -- Tea Party darling Ted Cruz holds an early lead over longtime Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst in the heated Republican runoff for the U.S. Senate seat.
Cruz leading Dewhurst 54 percent to 46 percent.

The winner will face Former Texas state lawmaker Paul Sadler who easily defeated Grady Yarbrough in the Democratic runoff. The Republican will win the seat.

The two were battling for retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison's U.S. Senate seat. Cruz had lost the May 29 primary by a large margin but forced the runoff because Dewhurst fell short of a majority.

Cruz now will face off in November against former Texas state lawmaker Paul Sadler, the winner of the Democratic primary run-off.

Voters on Tuesday also chose a new Republican nominee for Ron Paul's 14th Congressional District in Texas. The Associated Press reported Randy Weber beat opponent Felicia Harris. Now, the Pearland resident will face the Democratic nominee in the general election on Nov. 6.

Paul, who's been a U.S. representative for 16 years, announced he was stepping down before his latest attempt for the presidential bid.

With 1 percent of the precincts reporting, Weber so far has garnered 62 percent of the vote.

Locally, the most race is the democratic one for Harris County School Trustee Position 6.

Earlier this month, the county clerk's office discovered that the wrong district lines were used for the primary in May. It's possible that if the correct lines were used, this run off would have been unnecessary.

Early voting numbers in that race show Lee is leading is 74 percent of the votes. Johnson has garnered only 26 percent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.