The2020 Texas Senate elections took place as part of thebiennialUnited States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 16 of the 31 state senate districts. The winners of this election served in the87th Texas Legislature. State senators serve four-year terms in the Texas State Senate. Those elected in 2020 will only be elected for two years, however, as part of the 2-4-4 term system. A statewide map of Texas's state Senate districts can be obtained from the Texas Legislative Council.[1] and individual district maps can be obtained from the U.S. Census.[2]
Following the 2018 state senate elections,Republicans maintained effective control of the Senate with 19 members. To claim control of the chamber fromRepublicans, theDemocrats would have needed to net four Senate seats.
The Democratic Party gained one seat (District 19), leaving the Republicans with an 18 to 13 majority in the chamber. This broke Republican's effective supermajority in the chamber, as legislation typically requires 19 votes, three fifths, to pass the chamber.[3] At the urging oflieutenant governorDan Patrick, the senate voted to reduce this threshold to 18, just as he had done to reduce the threshold from 21 to 19 during the2015 session.[4]
Despite the state's competitive elections forPresident andHouse of Representatives, analysts considered the Texas Senate extremely unlikely to flip control due to the small number of competitive seats up for election in 2020.
Incumbent Republican Pete Flores, who was elected in an upset in a2018 special election, ran for re-election. He was defeated by Democratic state representative Roland Gutierrez.[10]
The seat for District 14 became vacant on April 30, 2020, after the resignation ofKirk Watson.[11] A special election was originally called for July 14, 2020. However, Eddie Rodriguez chose not to contest the resulting runoff, thus the scheduled runoff was canceled and Sarah Eckhardt was deemed elected.
A special election forTexas State Senate District 30 has been called for September 29, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was August 28, 2020. The seat became vacant after the resignation ofPat Fallon on August 23, 2020.
Results by seat gains
Results by vote share
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