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LUFKIN — Tuesday’s Republican primary election marks a new era for East Texas, as several of the powerhouses who have long championed the region at the Capitol won’t appear on the ballot for the first time in decades.
State Sen. Robert Nichols and Reps. Dade Phelan and Gary VanDeaver are retiring. And Rep. Trent Ashby, who held his Lufkin-based seat in the lower chamber for more than a decade, is locked in a tense election for the upper chamber.
