These brackets — borrowed without apology from college basketball's March Madness brackets — offer a guide to the 2014 elections, beginning with candidate filings (now complete) and documenting the step-by-step journey through the March primaries, the May runoffs and the general election in November.

After each round of elections, the results will be added here, the winners will advance step by step, and the story of the 2014 elections will gradually become clear. Not every nominee is chosen in primaries: the Libertarian and Green parties select their nominees at state conventions, and independent candidates move straight to the general election after filing notice of their intentions and paying their entry fees.

Mouse over (or click on) the names of the candidates to see more information about them, or click on the name of a race (governor, for instance) to see a page with descriptions of the candidates in that contest. Clicking through to a candidate's directory page will bring up their most recent personal financial statements filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. There may be some late filers whose forms are not yet available, and U.S. House and Senate candidates have only been updated through 2012.