Published 8:48 AM EST Mar 7, 2018 It's going to take a pair of runoffs to pick the candidates in the highly contested Texas' 27th Congressional District race. Thousands of voters braved chilly, rainy weather throughout the day Tuesday to cast their ballots for the race. With votes in all 289 precincts counted, Bech Bruun had 36.09 percent of the vote, ahead of Michael Cloud, who had 33.86 percent, in the Republican primary, according to the Secretary of State website.

Raul (Roy) Barrera finished ahead of his rivals in the Democratic race with 41.21 percent of the vote. Eric Holguin was his closest competitor with 23.31 percent. The 27th District is made up several counties, though Nueces and Victoria counties account the lion's share of its voter base. Some candidates hinted earlier in the evening, as votes were still being counted, they were preparing for runoffs. 'It's looking like it will be a Corpus vs. Victoria runoff,' Bruun said midway through the evening.

Brian Bruun Nesse Mango

Eleanor Dearman Earlier in the day, Cloud stood in the rain outside of Veterans Memorial High School in Corpus Christi, greeting voters as they headed to the polls. Cloud was in Victoria at a watch party later in the evening, and when reached by phone, said the campaign is encouraged by what it was seeing. 'I'm so thankful for the many Texans throughout the district who block walked, who called, who've done the elbow grease work of a grassroots campaign,' he said. 'One thing that's really cool about our district is relationships still do matter,' Cloud added. 'And in a runoff relationships matter even more, and we have a very enthusiastic base of supporters.'

The seat is open because incumbent Blake Farenthold decided not to run for re-election. Casey Jackson/Caller-Times 'Quite simply my constituents deserve better,' Farenthold said in a Facebook Live video. 'They deserve a primary campaign that's focused on the serious issues facing our country and our state and fixing a broken system. Therefore I'm announcing my decision not to run for re-election.' Blake Farenthold won't seek re-election, will complete his term More: Five things to know about U.S.

Brian Bruun Nesse Mandtbank

Blake Farenthold His name was removed from the ballot, leaving Bruun, Cloud, Eddie Gassman, John Grunwald, Jerry Hall and Christopher K. Mapp in the Republican primaries. On the Democrat side, Raul (Roy) Barrera, Vanessa Edwards Foster, Eric Holguin and Ronnie McDonald were running. More: Supreme Court will review effects of Texas redistricting The U.S. Supreme Court is set to review whether the way the lines were drawn to dilute the voting strength of racial minorities. A hearing on that is expected in the spring. The state has expressed an eagerness to present their case to the court, but opponents have said a review could be to their benefit, given past findings that the boundaries are racially discriminatory.