With 507 of 545 precincts reporting election day results, incumbent Harold Dutton Jr. is projected to win the March 5 Democratic primary election with roughly 60.5% of the votes.
Four candidates are vying to become the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 142, including Dutton and challengers Joyce Chatman, Clint Horn and Danyahel Norris.
Norris is leading the remaining candidates with 18.9% of the votes, followed by Chatman and Horn with 15.3% and 5.3% of the votes, respectively.
Dutton could not be reached for comment as of press time.
All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Updated March 5 at 10:30 p.m.
With 46 of 545 precincts reporting election day results, incumbent Harold Dutton Jr. has maintained his lead in the March 5 primary election with roughly 61.5% of the votes.
Four candidates are vying to become the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 142, including Dutton and challengers Joyce Chatman, Clint Horn and Danyahel Norris.
Norris is leading the rest of the candidates with 18.9% of the votes, followed by Chatman and Horn with 14.6% and 5% of the votes, respectively.
Community Impact will update this article on March 6 after more election day vote totals are released. All results are unofficial until canvassed.
Posted March 5 at 7:30 p.m.
With early voting results in, incumbent Harold Dutton Jr. has taken the lead in the March 5 primary election with roughly 61.6% of the votes.
The overview
Four candidates are vying to become the Democratic candidate for Texas House District 142, including Dutton and challengers Joyce Chatman, Clint Horn and Danyahel Norris.
Norris is leading the rest of the candidates with about 19.1% of the votes, with Chatman and Horn following with around 14.5% and 4.8% of the votes, respectively.
If none of the candidates receive more than half of the votes, the two candidates with the highest number of votes will face off in a runoff election in May.
No Republican candidates filed to run in their primary for District 142. The winner of the Democratic primary will run unopposed in the Nov. 5 general election.
District 142 includes portions of Houston, Humble and the Atascocita, Fall Creek and Summerwood areas.
A closer look
Both Horn and Norris have said public education would be among their highest priorities if elected.
Dutton, who was first elected in 1984, is a member of the state’s Public Education Committee. However, his opponents have cited his role in the 2023 state takeover of Houston ISD as a concern.
In 2015, Dutton authored a bill allowing the Texas Education Agency to take over a school district if a single school in the district did not meet state accountability standards for five consecutive years.
The state initially attempted to enforce the legislation on HISD in 2019, but the Texas Supreme Court issued an injunction to block the state from taking over the district.
In 2021, Dutton sponsored a bill that gave the state education commissioner final and unappealable power to take over local school districts, clearing the way for the state to take control of HISD.
In a Q&A with Community Impact, Horn said he would fight to overturn the HISD takeover and work to ensure increases in teacher pay.
Norris, a former Harris County Department of Education trustee, said he would work to ensure the state provides more funding into public education in the Q&A.
Neither Dutton nor Chatman responded to requests from Community Impact to participate in the Q&As.
