The race to replace a retiring Republican incumbent in the 24th Congressional district is still too close to call Wednesday afternoon.
A Democrat is seeking to flip a historically Republican seat left open by a U.S. Rep. Kenny Marchant, who announced his retirement last year after more than a decade in office.
Former Irving Mayor Beth Van Duyne faces former Carrollton-Farmers Branch school board trustee Candace Valenzuela in the bid to represent the district, which includes Carrollton, Coppell, Irving, Southlake and the DFW Airport.
Van Duyne declared victory Tuesday night, but Valenzuela said it was too soon. At one point late Tuesday, the Democrat led in the race, but Van Duyne carries the lead Wednesday afternoon.
Votes are still being tallied, many of which were cast in Tarrant County.
"Our campaign is committed to a full and complete count of all ballots so that every vote is counted and every voice is heard," the Valenzuela campaign said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
Van Duyne is a Trump supporter who was appointed as a regional administrator for the U.S. Housing and Urban Development.
Valenzuela hopes to flip the seat to become the first Black Latina in Congress.
The race has been competitive in a district that was once solidly red.
Marchant narrowly kept his seat during the 2018 election.
In 2014, Marchant won by 33 percentage points. In 2016, the margin narrowed to 17 percentage points. By 2018, that gap narrowed to 3 percentage points.
Van Duyne has run on a conservative platform to curb illegal immigration and combat what she says is a rise in socialism.
The Valenzuela campaign said Van Duyne's early claim to victory was "premature and irresponsible."
“We have seen unprecedented turnout and thousands of votes are still being counted," a spokesperson for Valenzuela said. "Our campaign is committed to a full and complete count of all ballots so that every vote is counted and every voice is heard."
Matthew Wilson, a political science professor at SMU, says while there are still mail-in ballots to be counted in Tarrant County, it's likely not enough to make up for a 4,643 vote spread between the two candidates, according to unofficial results from the Texas Secretary of State website.
“Clearly Valenzuela is a definite underdog at this point," Wilson said. "It would take something pretty unusual for her to end up on top.”
Whoever wins this race will join a Congress that has already reached a record number of female members.
Van Duyne is a part of 94 Republican women who were running for congressional seats in the nations. This is a record number and almost twice as many that ran in 2018.
After the 2018 elections, women made up nearly a quarter of the chamber's voting members, the highest percentage ever.