Incumbent State Rep. John Lujan won re-election for Texas House District 118 during an election night that heavily favored Republicans in close races.
Lujan defeated Democratic challenger Kristian Carranza with 51.7% of the vote.
This marks Lujan’s second victory during a November election. In 2016, Lujan won the seat during a special election but lost in the 2018 midterm elections. He ran again in 2021 in another special election for the same district and then earned a subsequent victory in the 2022 midterms.
Lujan is a previous Bexar County Sheriff’s deputy and a former San Antonio firefighter. He now owns a small IT firm.
In the upcoming legislative session, Lujan said he plans to pre-file bills on several issues including vaping, fentanyl and juvenile justice.
“I don't want to have a juvenile justice system that's just prepping people to go to prison,” he said. “I want to make sure that we're doing true rehabilitation while they're there, but then also wrap around services when they get home, because we're putting them back in the same environment that got them in there in the first place.”
The outcome of the race maintains a potential path to a school voucher system where tax-payer dollars could be removed from public schools funded by the state to be transferred into private schools at the choice of parents.
Lujan has remained supportive with some caveats.
“I'm a parental choice person all the way, but I think we need to be structured in a way,” he said. “All my kids went to public school. I graduated from a public school. What I want to make sure is that we make this fair across the board, and that we judge everybody, we monitor everybody the same.”
In September, Lujan appeared on TPR’s The Source for a candidate forum. When asked about his stance on abortion, Lujan said “I don't have any daughters, but if I had a daughter — and that would have been, you know, if it would have been a rape, I think we, as a personally, I would say, 'No, we're going to have the baby.'”
On election night, Lujan said he took issue with TPR's presentation of his response saying he never used the word ‘force’ and that he was a “pro-life candidate, with exception of rape, incest and life of the mother.”
House District 118 comprises the south to northeast sides of Bexar County.
