Retired Army officer Brian Birdwell defeated retired lobbyist and former lawmaker David Sibley by a comfortable margin in Tuesday’s state Senate special election runoff.

Birdwell, a Granbury Republican, overcame a sizable fundraising disadvantage, winning with 57.9 percent of the vote.

He will serve out the last six months of the term of former Sen. Kip Averitt, who announced his resignation in mid-March.

Brian Birdwell will serve the rest of state Sen. Kip Averitt’s term.

Averitt, who won the GOP primary to serve in the 2011 session, is still on the November ballot.

Averitt suggested Tuesday afternoon before the votes had been counted that if Birdwell were to win, he might stay on the ballot and in the state Senate.

If Averitt were to remove his name, separate sets of county party chairs from the 10-county district — both Democratic and Republican — could select nominees for the general election.

Averitt, however, said he was concerned that if Birdwell was nominated, Democrats could knock him off the ballot because he didn’t meet an eligibility requirement.

Sibley’s campaign said voting records from Virginia showed Birdwell hadn’t been a Texas resident for the past five years and thus failed to meet a state requirement.

“I really don’t want to go back to the Senate, but I feel like I’m physically capable of doing so,” said Averitt, who pulled himself off the campaign trail for health reasons in January.

“It’s nothing personal against Mr. Birdwell, but we need to make sure there’s a Republican candidate on the ballot.”

In an interview after the election, Birdwell said, “I think it’d be a disappointment to the people of Senate District 22, who took (Averitt) at his word that he’d be stepping down.”

If Averitt stays on the ballot, Birdwell said, it would be an insult to voters who were treating the election as “a meaningful opportunity for folks to fill his vacancy.”

Birdwell also maintained that he is eligible to serve in the Senate.

“Residency is not the question,” he said.

Regardless of what happens with the general election ballot, Birdwell’s win was impressive.

In Sibley, Birdwell faced an opponent who was well-funded, well-connected as a once-powerful state legislator and endorsed by former President George W. Bush.

But the political atmosphere nationally is anti-incumbent, and Sibley, a former state senator, was running on his legislative experience.

“I’m disappointed,” Sibley said, “but I always thought the voters were smart when they elected, so who am I to question what they did tonight?”

State Senate contender David Sibley talks on the Zach and Jim morning radio show Tuesday. Sibley lost to Brian Birdwell in a runoff election.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Sibley, who made a big advertising appeal in the Waco region for keeping a local in the Senate seat, also noted Birdwell’s strength in the northern counties of the district, where Birdwell had roughly a 6,500-vote lead.

By contrast, Sibley won McLennan County by 63 percent and had about a 3,000-vote lead.

Birdwell, who works as a motivational speaker for an evangelical Christian group, played up his military background in radio ads.

Waco Tea Party president Toby Marie Walker recorded a last-second robo-call on behalf of Birdwell.

Though Walker didn’t state her affiliation in the recording, she said that “as a lobbyist, David Sibley is out of touch with tea party values.”

Birdwell said after the election, “We’re very pleased by the conservatives who’ve worked hard for this victory.”

mshapiro@wacotrib.com

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