The1994 United States House of Representatives elections in Texas occurred on November 8, 1994, to elect the members of the state of Texas's delegation to theUnited States House of Representatives.Texas had thirty seats in the House, apportioned according to the1990 United States census.
In early 1994, severalRepublicans sued the state alleging thatDistrict 18 andDistrict 29 were raciallygerrymandered.[1]District 30 was later added to the case, and in August, a federal judicial panel ordered the state to redraw its congressional districts.[2] A separate panel later allowed the struck districts to be used for the 1994 elections, but it ordered the state to redraw its districts before the1996 elections.[3] This decision was later appealed and became theSupreme Court caseBush v. Vera.[4]
Amidst theRepublican Revolution, in which theRepublican Party took control of the U.S. House for the first time since1952,Republicans gained two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas and won the statewide popular vote, but Democrats maintained their majority of Texas seats due to redistricting.[5]
Incumbent DemocratJack Brooks ran for re-election. RepublicanSteve Stockman, who had lost to Brooks in1992, defeated the 42-year incumbent as suburban Republican voters came to increasingly dominate the district.[7]
Incumbent DemocratMichael A. Andrews retired torun for U.S. Senator.[11] Despite the national Republican wave, Democrat Ken Bentsen, the nephew ofTreasury Secretary and formerU.S. SenatorLloyd Bentsen, defeated businessman Gene Fontenot in the open race. The race was the most expensive U.S. House race in Texas history; Fontenot had outspent Bentsen four to one.[12]
Incumbent RepublicanDick Armey ran for re-election. He became the first Texas Republican to be electedmajority leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.[5]
