ALSO INSIDE

U.S. House lawmaker recently quit amid sex harassment allegations.

Abbott calls June 30 special election for U.S. House seat,

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday ordered an emergency special election for June 30 to elect a U.S. representative for a congressional district that stretches from Corpus Christi to Bastrop and Caldwell counties.

The winner will serve out the remaining months of the twoyear term of U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, who resigned in early April amid sexual harassment allegations.

The candidate filing deadline is Friday.

Abbott has said he wants residents of the 27th Congressional District to have a voice in Washington as the area works to recover from Hurricane Harvey.

“All counties contained within this district continue to be under the state disaster declaration related to the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, making it imperative that we fill this vacancy as soon as possible,” Abbott said. “Hurricane relief efforts depend heavily on action at the federal level, which can only occur if Texans residing in disaster zones have full and effective representation in Congress.”

There will be no primary in the special election. The top vote-getter will serve out the term, which ends in early January. If no one wins more than half the vote, a runoff likely will be held in September, according to Abbott’s office.

At the same time, four candidates are campaigning in Democratic and Republican runoffs on May 22 to run in November to serve the next full two-year term to represent the conserva-