Voters head to the polls Tuesday, March 3, to cast their ballots in the Republican and Democratic presidential primary elections.

Ballots for each party primary also include races to determine nominees for U.S. Senate, U.S. Representative seats, statewide offices and for a handful of county level offices.

Early voting opened Feb. 18 and closes Friday, Feb. 28. On election day, Princeton residents can cast ballots from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Branch, 711 FM 546, or any voting center in Collin County, such as Lowry Crossing City Hall, 1405 S. Bridgefarmer Road.

At the top of ballots are can­didates seeking presidential nominations and each party has an ample number of hopefuls.

In the GOP Primary, Presi­dent Donald Trump faces six opponents: Roque “Rocky” Guerra, Zoltan G. Istvan, Mat­thew Matern, Bob Ely, Joe Walsh and Bill Weld.

Seeking the Democratic nom­ination for president, as listed on ballots, are Joe Biden, Michael Bloomberg, Pete Buttigeig, Rocque “Rocky” de la Fuente, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Deval Patrick, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gab­bard, John K. Delaney, Mari­anne Williamson, Cory Booker, Robby Wells, Julian Castro, Mi­chael Bennet, Tom Steyer and Andrew Yang.

A good number of presiden­tial candidates, such as Demo­crats Harris, Gabbard, William­son, Booker, Castro and Yang, have dropped out of the race but their names still appear on pri­mary ballots.

Incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn faces three challeng­ers in the Republican Primary, Mark Yancey, Dwayne Stovall and Virgil Bierschwale. On the Democratic side, the seven hopefuls running for the U.S. Senate nomination are Chris Bell, Jack Daniel Foster, Jr., Vic­tor Hugo Harris, Sema Hernan­dez, Adrian Ocegueda, Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez, Royce West and Amanda Edwards.

Princeton voters must also select candidates for U.S. Repre­sentative, District 3. Incumbent U.S. Rep. Van Taylor is unop­posed in the Republican Primary but will face Lulu Seikaly, Tan­ner Do or Sean McCaffity from the Democratic Primary in the General Election.

First term incumbent Candy Noble is unopposed in the Re­publican Primary for state Rep­resentative, District 89, and will run against either Demo­cratic candidate Ray Ash of John Cocks.

In state Representative Dis­trict 70, GOP incumbent Scott Sanford is unopposed and will face Democratic candidate An­gie Bado, also unopposed, in the fall.

Moving down the ballot, in­cumbent Collin County Tax As­sessor Ken Maun is challenged by Scott Grigg in the Republican Primary. There is no Democratic candidate for the office.

A race developed at the filing deadline for County Commis­sioner, Precinct 3, when long­time Allen Mayor Steve Terrell challenged incumbent Darrell Hale for the Republican nomina­tion. Hale was elected in 2018 to fill an unexpired term.

Incumbent county GOP can­didates running unopposed in the primary are Sheriff Jim Skinner and Constable Gary Ed­wards, Pct. 2.

Also on primary ballots are seats on the Texas Supreme Court, Court of Criminal Ap­peals, Railroad Commissioner and District Courts, and a num­ber of non-binding propositions.

On Republican Party ballots are nine propositions address­ing prayer in public schools, the right to own guns, taxpayer-funding lobbying, border se­curity, healthcare decisions for children under the age of 18, sex change procedures, preservation of historical sites, artifacts and buildings, purging voter rolls, bail set in criminal cases and term limits for state legislators.

Democratic Party ballots include 11 propositions deal­ing with universal health care, student debt, climate change, economic security for workers, discrimination, freedom from violence, affordable housing, state election holiday, fair criminal justice system, immigration reform and equitable taxation.

For more stories like this, see the Feb. 27 issue or subscribe online.

Joe Reavis • [email protected]