1972 Texas Senate election

← 1970 November 7, 1972 1974 →
All 31 seats in theTexas Senate 16 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Party Democratic Republican Last election 29 2 Seats won 28 3 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 2,012,582 611,869 Percentage 76.14% 23.15% Swing 7.94% 7.28%
Senate results by district      Democratic hold      Republican hold     Republican gain
President Pro Tempore before election Democratic ElectedPresident Pro Tempore Democratic

The1972 Texas Senate elections took place as part of thebiennialUnited States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in all 31State Senate districts. The winners of this election served in the63rd Texas Legislature, serving staggered terms, with half of them up for election in 1974 and the other half up in 1976.

Democrats had controlled theTexas Senate since the1872 elections.^[1] In 1971, a number of high-profile Democratic politicians came under scrutiny from theSecurities and Exchange Commission for alleged illegalstock trading. The ensuing scandal, which became known as theSharpstown stock-fraud scandal, enveloped figures such asgovernorPreston Smith,lieutenant governorBen Barnes, andHouse SpeakerGus Mutscher. Mutscher, among others, would later be convicted for his part in the scandal.^[2]

The legislature failed topass new districts for the Senate during its regular session, and they did not pass them during the subsequent special session, either. This forced the Legislative Redistricting Board, made up of four statewide elected officials and theSpeaker of the House, to convene for the first time to draw them, instead.^[3] The board had been established by a 1948 constitutional amendment passed in response to the legislature's failure to redraw state legislative boundaries after the1930 or1940 censuses.^[4][5] The board was made up entirely of Democrats, and they passed a map that wasgerrymandered to favor them.^[6] The map drew two lawsuits, one by Republicans who challenged the districts inBexar County, and another byDallas DemocratCurtis Graves, who argued the districts inHarris County illegally diluted the votes of minority voters. These lawsuits were consolidated with two other suits against the board's map for theHouse of Representatives underGraves v. Barnes. The district court denied both claims, upholding the board's map, a decision which would later be upheld by theU. S. Supreme Court inArcher v. Smith.^[7]

TheSharpstown scandal rocked both the primary and general elections. Reform-minded candidates, both Democrats and Republicans, ousted dozens of incumbents across both chambers. Of the 31 seats up for election to the Senate, 15 elected new members. Alongside RepublicanRichard Nixon'slandslide victory in theconcurrent presidential election, Republicans gained one seat, reducing the Democraticsupermajority to 28 out of 31 seats.^[8]

• Kingston, Mike (1973).Texas Almanac, 1974-1975. Dallas, Texas:The Dallas Morning News.
• Bickerstaff, Steve. Heath, C. Robert (ed.).Gerrymandering Texas (2020).

• 1972 Texas elections
• 1972 state legislature elections in the United States
• Texas Senate elections

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