It has been five years since the make up of the Tomball Independent School District Board of Trustees has undergone a change, but the Nov. 2 election, and the resignation of two of its members, has ensured that there will be two new faces on the board beginning this week.

Kathy Handler will take over as Position 1 incumbent, replacing Kathy Hanson, who opted not to seek re-election this year after eight years on the board. Handler ran unopposed, as did trustees John McStravick (Position 3) and Mark Lewandowski (Position 4).

Winning the only contested race was Michael Pratt (pictured), who defeated David Zuhlke and William Harris for the Position 2 seat, formerly held by Stephen Robinson, who retired from the board.

Pratt won the race handily, garnering 5,163 votes, more than twice as many as the second place finisher, Zuhlke, who tallied 2,458 votes. Harris finished third in the race with 1,657 votes.

Pratt called the margin of victory “impressive” and said that he believed the voters of Tomball ISD identified with “a good message with conservative values.”

“For a couple of months, you’ve got to go to all these things (campaign events) and you have no feedback,” Pratt said. “To be honest with you, with three people I thought it (the election results) would be balanced. The results are really a reception to my message and what I’m standing for.”

As part of his campaign for election, Pratt said he did “a ton of networking” and went door-to-door meeting with potential voters in order to get his message out.

Pratt and Handler will be sworn in at Tomball ISD’s Nov. 8 workshop meeting, following the canvassing of the votes.

In other Election results, all of the state and federal government positions with local representation followed the rest of Texas in maintaining a Republican stronghold.

Each of the local representatives, all Republicans, won their respective races, including Rep. Michael McCaul (R-10) for the U.S. Congress. He defeated Democrat Ted Ankrum and Libertarian Jeremiah Perkins in a landslide, earning 64 percent of the vote, compared to Ankrum’s 33 percent. Perkins picked up 2.3 percent.

At the state level, Rep. Allen Fletcher (R-130) easily handled Libertarian Joe Spencer, 50,321 votes to 6,259.

In the District 150 race, Republican incumbent Debbie Riddle (71 percent) earned her fifth term, defeating Democrat Brad Neal (26 percent) and Libertarian Eric Holdt (1.9 percent).

Republican Dan Patrick won his re-election bid for a second term in the District 7 State Senate seat, defeating Libertarian Lee Coughran.

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