U.S. House - TX-09 · Texas · 2026
General election · 2 on the certified November ballot · Open seat (no incumbent)
Result
CalledLeticia Gutierrez (D) won this race with 57.5% of the vote, 15.1 points ahead.
- Leticia GutierrezDemocraticWinner57.5%98,079 votes
- Alex MealerRepublican42.5%72,340 votes
- Margin
- 25,739 votes (15.1 points)
- Reporting
- 100% of the count in
- Called
- First seen here, Nov 4, 9:50 AM ET
- Last updated
- Nov 7, 8:53 AM ET
- Source
- State results feed
Called it: hit Our locked call before polls closed was D; the winner is D. See every locked call
Unofficial until the state certifies the result.
Before the election
Polls, ratings and the Vugol Tensor below were published before votes were counted. They are not results.
Model rating Leans Democratic (Anchored) on the Vugol Vector model, a snapshot of today, not a probability.
2 polls on file, none verified yet (pollster not verified or no public source), shown below, not averaged. Model inputs: 3 of 7, updated today. Page updated 2026-11-14. Sources · What is validated
ExperimentalNews attention 46/100, how much coverage the race gets, not who is winning. Updated 3 days ago. How it works
On the November ballot (2)
Certified by the state on 2026-08-28, checked 2026-11-13.
Not on the certified ballot (11)
Filed or ran for this seat, but not on the state’s certified list for November.
Official source: https://www.sos.texas.gov/elections/forms/2026-ballot-cert.pdf
Latest verified field polling
Verified = published by the pollster that conducted it, with a public source we link to.
No verified poll has been published for this race. The Vugol Vector call from our model is below, it is not a poll.
Polling average
2 polls on file for this race, none verified yet (pollster not verified or no public source), visible below, not averaged.
Campaign money (FEC)
Candidate committee totals for the cycle from the Federal Election Commission (public domain), as of each committee's latest report.
| Candidate | Raised | Spent | Cash on hand | Through |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandra Mealer | $2,782,240 | $2,580,968 | $201,272 | 2026-10-14 |
| Briscoe Rowell Cain III | $621,334 | $596,742 | $24,593 | 2026-09-30 |
| Crystal Sarmiento | $79,458 | $79,458 | $0 | 2026-09-30 |
| Dan Mims | $425,385 | $423,596 | $1,790 | 2026-09-30 |
| Dwayne Bradley Stovall | $27,696 | $29,295 | $0 | 2026-04-14 |
| Jaimy Blanco | $121,906 | $122,924 | $0 | 2026-09-30 |
| James Buford | $72,951 | $72,986 | $0 | 2026-04-01 |
| Leticia Gutierrez | $215,053 | $104,161 | $110,892 | 2026-10-14 |
| R. Todd Ivey | $192,630 | $192,630 | $0 | 2026-06-30 |
| Roy Morales | $6,108 | $2,742 | $-635 | 2026-09-30 |
| Steve Stockman | $251,777 | $207,997 | $0 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terry Lee Thain | $5,250 | $3,397 | $1,859 | 2025-12-31 |
| Terry Virts | $666,754 | $455,642 | $55,965 | 2026-09-30 |
Ad spending (FEC)
What each campaign reported paying for ads, and what outside groups (super PACs, PACs and parties) reported spending for and against each candidate. Federal Election Commission filings, public domain.
| Candidate | Campaign's own ads | Outside groups for | Outside groups against |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alexandra Mealer | $379K | $6.5M | $362K |
| Leticia Gutierrez | $1,500 | $320K | $1.3M |
| Briscoe Rowell Cain III | $52K | $48K | $515K |
| James Buford | $65K | ||
| R. Todd Ivey | $0 | $50K | |
| Crystal Sarmiento | $24K |
Biggest outside spenders
- Alexandra Mealer. For: Club for Growth Action $1.1M, DEFENDING OUR VALUES PAC $905K, VETERANS DUTY FUND $750K. Against: BUILDING A STRONG AMERICA $270K, CITIZENS FOR AMERICAN STRENGTH $85K, COURAGEOUS CONSERVATIVES PAC $7,389
- Leticia Gutierrez. For: AB PAC $220K, Mijente PAC $95K, Science Victory Fund $3,809. Against: NO GOING BACK PAC INC. $844K, Club for Growth Action $264K, American Liberty Foundation PAC $121K
- Briscoe Rowell Cain III. For: CITIZENS FOR AMERICAN STRENGTH $32K, LONE STAR STRONG $16K. Against: Win it Back PAC $417K, DEFENDING OUR VALUES PAC $98K
- R. Todd Ivey. For: American College of OB-GYNs PAC (OB-GYN PAC) $50K
Outside groups: 24- and 48-hour independent expenditure reports for the 2026 primary and general, through 2026-10-28, each expenditure counted once after amendments; "ads" is TV, radio, digital and other media, and the rest is mail, phones, canvassing and similar. Campaign's own ads: TV, radio, digital, other media and ad production in the campaign committee's itemized payments, as the campaign described them, from the reports the FEC has processed (latest through 2026-09-30); newer reports appear as the FEC processes them. These are amounts committees reported paying, not airtime tracked by ad-monitoring firms, so very recent buys and future reservations may not show yet. Parser fec-ad-spend-1.0.0.
Results
Vote counts from the state’s own results feed, read every minute while votes are counted. Counts change until the state certifies.
general election · state results feed, unofficial
| Leticia Gutierrez won | 98,079 | 57.6% |
| Leticia Gutierrez won | 98,079 | 57.5% |
| Alex Mealer | 72,340 | 42.4% |
| Alex Mealer | 72,340 | 42.5% |
Leticia Gutierrez leads by 25,739 votes. 100% of reporting units counted.
Republican primary runoff
| Alex Mealer won | 15,625 | 68.3% |
| Briscoe Cain | 7,257 | 31.7% |
Democratic primary
| Leticia Gutierrez won | 18,703 | 53.6% |
| Earnest Clayton | 5,673 | 16.3% |
| Terry Virts | 5,095 | 14.6% |
| Todd Ivey | 2,462 | 7.1% |
| Marty Rocha | 2,374 | 6.8% |
| Peter Filler | 558 | 1.6% |
Republican primary
| Alex Mealer advanced | 11,343 | 35.8% |
| Briscoe Cain advanced | 9,886 | 31.2% |
| Steve Stockman | 5,196 | 16.4% |
| Dan Mims | 2,608 | 8.2% |
| Crystal DeLeon-Sarmiento | 788 | 2.5% |
| Dwayne Stovall (withdrawn) | 724 | 2.3% |
| Jaimy Blanco | 498 | 1.6% |
| Michael Curran | 351 | 1.1% |
| Terry Thain | 291 | 0.9% |
Source: the state's official results feed, retrieved 2026-11-04 · parser state-feed-1.0.0+all-reporting/unassailable-1.0.0
Key dates
Official federal election dates for this state from the FEC. Registration deadlines and early voting: see the state election office.
- 2026-03-03, Primary election: U.S. House
- 2026-04-11, Convention: U.S. House, LIB
- 2026-05-26, Runoff: U.S. House
- 2026-11-03, General election: U.S. House
Source: FEC election dates (public domain).
Primary and hypothetical polls (6)
Kept on file, never averaged into this race. Polls listed on the Wikipedia election article (CC BY-SA 4.0), each linked to that article revision and, where we know it, to the pollster's own site.
- Republican primary runoff · University of Houston · 2026-05-05–2026-05-09 · n=400 · Alex Mealer (R) 50%,Briscoe Cain (R) 41% · release
- Republican primary · Pulse Decision Science (partisan) · 2026-02-09–2026-02-11 · n=400 · Alex Mealer (R) 29%,Briscoe Cain (R) 25%,Steve Stockman (R) 6%,Dan Mims (R) 6% · release
- Democratic primary · University of Houston · 2026-02-03–2026-02-10 · n=400 · Leticia Gutierrez (D) 24%,Terry Virts (D) 5%,Earnest Clayton 5%,Marty Rocha 2%,Todd Ivey (D) 2%,Peter Filler 1% · release
- Republican primary · University of Houston · 2026-02-03–2026-02-10 · n=400 · Alex Mealer (R) 34%,Briscoe Cain (R) 26%,Dan Mims (R) 10%,Steve Stockman (R) 4% · release
- Republican primary · Pulse Decision Science (partisan) · 2025-12-15–2025-12-17 · n=400 · Briscoe Cain (R) 25%,Alex Mealer (R) 19%,Steve Stockman (R) 6%,Dan Mims (R) 2% · release
- Republican primary · McLaughlin & Associates (partisan) · 2025-10-21–2025-10-23 · n=400 · Briscoe Cain (R) 37%,Alex Mealer (R) 16%,Dan Mims (R) 3% · pollster's site · release
In the news
- Progressives and moderates rejoice: 6 takeaways from the midterms
- Texas redistricting left these Latino voters confused, but will it impact midterm vote?
- How redrawn House districts voted in the midterms
- House Democrats grow more bullish about midterms as target list expands
Headlines from outlets across the political spectrum, linked to the publisher. Vugol.me doesn’t write or endorse them. How we choose them · All election news
LabVugol Vector & Vugol Attention
Vugol Attention 46 Vugol Vector D · Anchored
Vugol Me model signals, not polls. Verified polling is in the Polls section above.
Vugol Me Attention (attention intensity)
Vugol Attention intensity index 0–100 · not a poll · normalized nightly
Vugol Vector
Proprietary ensemble model · a call, not a probability · model confidence: medium
The breakdown of this call (the model's multi-signal input matrix, input by input) is on Ultra Pro plans.
Vugol Tensor
How far this call can miss · a range, not a prediction · no verified poll here, so the range is wider and untested
Centre D+84.8. Four times in five the result lands between D+94.2 and D+75.4; nine in ten between D+96.9 and D+72.7. Chance the Democrat finishes ahead: 100%.
Polls have missed by about four points in a typical race and they miss together. How Tensor works →
Desk data: daily telemetry
Per-source daily series, CSV export and the Vugol Vector breakdown · paid plans
Sources
- Roster, official filings; fundraising from FEC datapoints where on file (https://api.open.fec.gov/).
- Vugol Attention inputs, Wikipedia pageviews (https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/) and GDELT news volume and tone (https://www.gdeltproject.org/).
- Polls and results, individual polls and primary results listed on the Wikipedia election article (CC BY-SA 4.0), each poll linked to the pollster's release; money and election dates from the FEC (public domain). How rows are checked.
- Models attention-1.0.0 · vector-1.1.0 · attention inputs SHA-256 3a3eab27878b · methodology · license CC BY 4.0 (data license).
Vugol Vector band: D · Anchored. Have a say in the Vugol race poll; it is open to signed-in voters and never feeds these numbers.
The four Vugol signals, side by side
They answer different questions and are kept apart. Full method: Methodology.
- Vugol Vector
- Our call for every race if today’s polls hold. A snapshot, not a win probability or a vote share.
- Vugol Tensor
- How sure we are: ranges and chamber-control odds around the Vector, built from past polling error. An experiment about uncertainty, not a better guess.
- Vugol Attention
- How much news and online noise a race gets, 0 to 100. It measures noise, not support: a high score says nothing about who is ahead.
- Vugol Pulse
- Our daily thumbs-up or thumbs-down question for readers. Anyone can answer, so it describes our readers, not the public. It is not a vote and never enters a poll average or any other signal.