Cole Hefner

From staff reports

State Rep. Cole Hefner, R-Mount Pleasant, will serve his fifth term representing House District 5 after defeating two GOP primary opponents Tuesday.

Hefner had 69.81 percent of the votes Wednesday morning, according to the Texas Secretary of State, compared with 19.31 percent for Jeff Fletcher and 10.87 percent for Dewey Collier II.

House District 5 includes parts of Camp, Rains, Smith, Titus, Upshur and Wood counties.

A majority of voters in Smith County wanted to see Hefner serve another term, as 3,896, or 62.54%, chose his name on the Republican ballot. Fletcher received 1,856 votes, or 29.79%, in Smith County, while Collier received 478 votes or 7.67%.

No Democrats filed to run for the seat.

Hefner is the owner of Hefner Group Insurance, which has offices in East Texas. He and his family live in Mount Pleasant in Titus County.

Hefner, who voted for a school voucher program during the 2023 legislative session, previously said the measure to implement them failed in the House because representatives “were honest” and voted against it for a variety of reasons. He said he believes a voucher-like proposal might be passed during a future legislative session.

Hefner also previously said paper ballots can be manipulated by dishonest election workers, mentioning that he championed the state’s 2021 election integrity law, sponsored by Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, as a way the state improved its election security by putting more “eyeballs” on the vote-counting process.

And Hefner previously said he believes Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan is a strong conservative leader and that the Republican Party’s vote to censure Phelan is “insane.”

“All they do is sit around and censure and attack Republicans, and it’s the conservatives that they’re attacking,” he said.