Coryell County runoff reshapes local leadership, turns over three top offices

Coryell County’s courthouse leadership is headed for a reset after voters ousted incumbents in three of the county’s five top elected offices in the May 26 runoff. Rob Erwin won the county judge race, Tully Meyer won County Commissioner Precinct 2 and Ray Ashby won County Commissioner Precinct 4, giving the county a new leadership lineup that will take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

The practical effect is broader than three names on a results sheet. County judge and commissioners will be the people shaping the next round of budget choices, staffing decisions and policy calls at the courthouse, so the runoff determined who will steer county government for the next term. Erwin defeated Roger Miller, Meyer beat Scott Weddle and Ashby topped Justin Smith in contests that had been watched closely across the county.

Unofficial Republican totals showed Erwin with 2,706 votes to Miller’s 1,530. Ashby finished with 612 votes to Smith’s 407, and Meyer edged Weddle 507 to 443. Early voting had already given Erwin and Ashby a lead, and both held it through election night. Meyer entered election day with a narrow early-vote advantage and widened it once the final returns came in.

The runoff was the product of the March 3 primary, when no candidate cleared the majority needed to avoid another round. In that earlier vote, Erwin led Miller 3,066 to 2,748 but still fell short of the threshold. Weddle led the Precinct 2 field with 633 votes, while Meyer had 266. In Precinct 4, Ashby led with 578 votes as Justin Smith, Keith Taylor and Carroll Starkey divided the rest of the field. For Ashby, the victory marks a return to the post he held from 2016 to 2022. For Meyer, it was his first run for public office.

Turnout remained modest, but enough to redraw the county’s top tier of leadership. A county election report listed 4,420 Republican ballots cast out of 46,201 registered voters, a turnout rate of 9.57 percent. The broader county count put Republican turnout at 4,420 and Democratic turnout at 438, about 10.51 percent of registered voters, with all eight polling places reporting.

Coryell County voters also weighed statewide runoff races, backing Ken Paxton for U.S. Senate, Chip Roy for attorney general, Jim Wright for railroad commissioner and Thomas Smith for Court of Criminal Appeals Place 3 on the Republican ballot. On the Democratic side, county voters chose Vikki Goodwin for lieutenant governor and Nathan Johnson for attorney general. The message from Coryell County was clear: voters used one runoff night to change the courthouse lineup and set the terms of county government for 2027.