With statewide early voting results just beginning to trickle in, former Houston Mayor Bill White already has a huge lead over Farouk Shami and the other five Democratic gubernatorial candidates. With only 92 of 8,380 Precincts reporting, White has 78 percent of the vote, followed by Shami with 11 percent. White may be on his way to winning the primary outright, which will allow him to begin focusing on November.
In early voting for the Republican gubernatorial primary, with 96 of 8,236 precincts reporting, Gov. Rick Perry has a big advantage over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Debra Medina. Perry was at 52 percent, with Hutchison at 31 percent and Medina at 17 percent. Again, the only question in this race is whether Perry can avoid a runoff against Hutchison by capturing more than 50 percent of the vote.
