Independent Laura Thompson has won the special election runoff to temporarily fill the Texas House seat of former state Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio.Thompson, a freelance writer, will be the first independent to serve in the Legislature in more than half a century, though her time will be limited: She was running to represent House District 120 for just the next several months. With all precincts reporting Tuesday night, Thompson defeated Democrat Lou Miller by 50 votes, 635 to 585 in unofficial returns. Thompson will serve through the rest of the year before McClendon’s permanent successor — to be elected in November — takes over ahead of the 2017 session. The last person to serve in the Legislature without a major-party affiliation was state Rep. Howard Green of Fort Worth, according to Legislative Reference Library records. Green served from 1957 to 1966, and while he was a Democrat most of those years, he identified as an independent for the 1959 session. Thompson and

Source: Texas Public Radio