Ortiz Jones ends House bid against Hurd in Texas

Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones on Tuesday ended her bid to oust Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), acknowledging that she had come up short in the nail-biting race for Texas’s 23rd District.

“Our campaign was based on the belief that everyone is equal — equally deserving to be heard at the ballot box and served in our communities,” Ortiz Jones said in a statement posted on Twitter. “While we came up short this time, we ran a race of which we can be proud.”

Our campaign was based on the belief that everyone is equal – equally deserving to be heard at the ballot box and served in our communities. While we came up short this time, we ran a race of which we can be proud.

Thank you, #TX23. pic.twitter.com/sMpDqbRCrr

— Gina Ortiz Jones (@GinaOrtizJones) November 19, 2018

The tweet signals the likely end of a race that remained too close to call for nearly two weeks after Election Day.

{mosads}Vote counts show Ortiz Jones trailing Hurd by fewer than 1,200 votes — about 0.5 points. That raised the possibility that Ortiz Jones could call for a recount under Texas state law. 

But such a recount would likely have been costly. Ortiz Jones’s statement on Tuesday appeared to put that possibility to rest.

Texas’s 23rd District was among the districts where Democrats saw the opportunity to make inroads. It stretches from the western suburbs of San Antonio to the eastern suburbs of El Paso in the far-west tip of the state. 

A win by Ortiz Jones would have further expanded Democrats’ newly won majority in the House. So far, the party has picked up 37 seats in the chamber — 14 more than the 23 Democrats needed to win a majority. 

Some races in New York, Georgia and Utah remain too close to call.