2006 Texas House of Representatives election

← 2004 November 7, 2006 2008 →
All 150 seats in theTexas House of Representatives 76 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Rep Lib Leader Tom Craddick Jim Dunnam Party Republican Democratic Libertarian Leader since January 9, 1973 January 14, 2003 Leader's seat 82nd 57th Last election 87 63 0 Seats before 86 64 0 Seats won 81 69 0 Seat change 5 5 Popular vote 2,094,435 1,585,173 231,098 Percentage 53.52% 40.51% 5.90% Swing 8.22% 3.16% 5.22%
Results by seat gains Results by vote share      Republican hold     Democratic hold      Democratic gain Republican:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     ≥90% Democratic:     40–50%     50–60%     60–70%     70–80%     80–90%     ≥90%
Speaker before election Tom Craddick Republican ElectedSpeaker Tom Craddick Republican

The2006 Texas House of Representatives elections took place as part of the biennialUnited States elections. Texas voters elected state representatives in all 150State House of Representatives districts. The winners of this election served in the80th Texas Legislature. State representatives serve for two-year terms. Republicans maintained control of the House, losing five seats to the Democrats.

Following the2002 elections, theRepublicans gained control of the House, giving them a governmental trifecta for the first time sinceReconstruction.^[1][2] Democrats gained a net of one seat back from the Republicans in the2004 elections, holding onto many rural districts that Republicans had targeted.^[3]

District 48: A special election was held on January 7, 2006, to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Todd Baxter, who resigned on November 1, 2005.^[4] DemocratDonna Howard received 49.46% in the special election, narrowly missing the 50% mark needed to win outright, so she faced Republican Ben Bentzin in the runoff on February 14, 2006.^[5] Howard won the runoff with 57.62%, flipping the district.^[6]

Analysts did not consider the Texas House to be a competitive legislative chamber.

Democrats gained a net of five seats from the Republicans.^[8]

Party		Candi-dates	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Republican Party	107	2,094,435	53.52%	81	5
	Democratic Party	113	1,585,173	40.51%	69	5
	Libertarian Party	88	231,098	5.90%	0	–
	Write-in	1	2,690	0.07%	0	–
Total			3,913,396	100.00%	150	–

'District 33'

IncumbentVilma Luna was unopposed in Democratic primary and was to be unopposed in the fall, but she withdrew from the race, allowing the Democratic Party a new nomination process and giving the Republican Party the chance to make its own nomination.

'District 48'

Ben Bentzin, unopposed in the Republican primary, withdrew from the race for House District 48 on August 21, 2006. Under the Texas Election Code, when a party nominee withdraws from a contested race, the party does not have the option to replace the candidate unless the candidate has been declared ineligible.

• Texas House of Representatives elections
• 2006 state legislature elections in the United States
• 2006 Texas elections

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