Montserrat Garibay, former U.S. Department of Education assistant deputy secretary, and Kathie Tovo, a former Austin City Council member, will face off in a runoff election for Texas House District 49 to represent UT and West Campus in the Texas Legislature.

An estimated 99% of the votes have been counted, according to the Associated Press. Garibay received 32.9% of the vote, and Tovo received 28.2%. A runoff election occurs when no candidate receives 50% or more of the vote, with the top two voted candidates advancing to a new election that will occur in May. Tovo or Garibay will run against UT student and Green Party candidate Arshia Papari in the November general election.

The seat is currently held by outgoing state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, D-Austin, who won the Democratic nomination for Texas governor on Tuesday. There were 40,488 votes cast for District 49 out of 920,114 registered voters in Texas, according to the Travis County Clerk. 

Garibay immigrated from Mexico as a child and graduated from UT in 2004. She served as the vice president of Education Austin, a labor union for Austin ISD employees, for five years and then as secretary-treasurer for Texas AFL-CIO, a state labor federation union with over 250,000 members. 

Garibay’s campaign centered around public education funding, freedom of speech in higher education, affordability and restoring reproductive rights. 

“It feels very exciting to be part of this race,” Garibay said. “To be able to show a different path, a different vision, where everyone is inclusive, it’s something that’s important to me.” 

Garibay said talking to students and learning about their priorities was at the heart of her campaign. 

“Being a working-class person, with an undocumented background — that really resonated with UT students because they are outraged that in-state tuition for undocumented students is not available anymore,” Garibay said. “We built our campaign based on the issues that are important to House District 49.”

Tovo was an adjunct faculty member at UT from 2023-2024 and represented UT and West Campus in the Austin City Council for 12 years. Tovo also served as mayor pro tem for four years. 

Tovo’s campaign centered around affordability and protecting academic freedoms in higher education, citing concern for the “crackdown on curriculum” and the elimination of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs.

“There were eight candidates in the race and certainly other strong candidates as well,” Tovo said. “We ran a really good campaign, had great volunteer support (and) had a great canvassing team.”

Tovo said she attributes her close second-place finish to her team’s ability to reach out to voters in the district. For the runoff, Tovo said she would focus on explaining why she would be an effective legislator.

“Many (voters) remembered my service on the Austin City Council. They appreciated my service,” Tovo said. “They can put their trust in me to stand strong against Republicans.” 

The race for House District 49 included six other candidates, including legislative staffer Josh Reyna, with 8.9% of the vote, and former U.S. diplomat Robin Lerner, with 7.6% of the vote. 

Other candidates in the race were Kimmie Ellison, Shenghao “Daniel” Wang, Gigs Hodges and Sam Slade.