BEAUMONT, Texas — Christian Manuel Hayes will be the Democratic candidate on the ballot in November for the Texas House District 22 seat after beating Joseph Trahan in the primary runoff election.
Hayes will face off against Republican Jacorion Randle and independent Chad Gary in November.
The seat was formerly held by State Rep. Joe Deshotel. Deshotel announced in mid-November that he was retiring after his 11th term in the Texas House of Representatives.
Hayes won the runoffs gaining 51% of the votes while Trahan gained 49% of the votes. During the March elections, Trahan gained 48% of the votes and Hayes was close behind with 43%.
Hayes believes working under Deshotel for, "the last 17 years," makes him the perfect candidate for the seat.
"If he's done the work, I've done the work because I've done the work with him for the last 17 years," Hayes said.
When campaigning, Hayes said he would focus on doing what is best for Jefferson County if he was elected. Hayes said he wanted voters to work together and not look at everything from a political side of view, but from a Jefferson County point of view.
“What's best for our people and how do we continue to push that,” Hayes said. "Make an effort to be in each other's lives more and listen to each other more, rather than wanting to have a large debate and arguments all the time. There's a lot of things that we can work on together that we should."
Hayes plans to work on area schools and bring more industry into the area.
"I want to make sure we are funding education and our special education programs," Hayes said.