Austin Metro voters respectively supported Bernie Sanders and Donald J. Trump during the 2020 Texas primary election. (Ali Linan/Community Impact Newspaper)

U.S. Senate Primary Election

Nearly 425,000 ballots were cast across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties for the March 3 primary election, with the majority of Austin Metro voters supporting incumbent President Donald J. Trump and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, as the respective Republican Party and Democrat Party presidential nominees, according to unofficial results posted overnight.Approximately 123,037 votes, or about 92.73% of all participating Republican voters, were cast in support of Trump as the party nominee across the three Austin Metro counties, and another 95,547 ballots, or 32.57% of Democrat voters, chose Sanders to represent the Democrats in the November presidential election.Trump also dominated the largely uncontested Republican Party primary throughout Texas, recording 94.05% of all primary votes, while former Vice President Joe Biden is projected to receive the most Democrat primary votes, about 32.41%, according to Texas Secretary of State unofficial results. Sanders received 29.72% of all statewide votes and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg earned 15.49%. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., placed fourth in the Democrat primary with 11.64% of the 1,653,588 votes counted as of 7 a.m. Central time March 4.Here is a breakdown of preliminary results (7 a.m. March 4) of combined presidential primary votes across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties:Democrat candidate Mary "MJ" Hegar and incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, were the big winners of the March 3 U.S. Senate primary election. Hegar garnered approximately 114,690 votes, or 40.3%, of all Democrat votes across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties, and Cornyn received 80,373 votes, or 81.94% of all Republican votes throughout the Austin Metro.Those results are consistent with statewide totals as Hegar bested the other Democratic candidates with 22.28% of the nearly 1.85 million Democrat votes cast in Texas. She'll advance to a May 26 runoff against Texas State Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, who has 14.52% of votes counted. Third-place candidate Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez received 12.76% of all votes, failing to make the runoff election, which occurs between the top-two candidates if no one receives more than 50% of the vote.Cornyn received 76.31% of the 1.95 million Republican state primary votes. He will appear as the Republican nominee on the Nov. 3 general election ballot.Here is a breakdown of preliminary results (7 a.m. March 4) of combined Senate primary votes across Travis, Williamson and Hays counties: