Sophomore RepublicanLouie Gohmert ofTyler was elected in 2004 following a controversial redistricting in 2003 by then-House Majority LeaderTom DeLay that moved the district of incumbent DemocratMax Sandlin into a strongly Republican constituency. Sandlin was defeated by a 24-point margin in 2004, and Gohmert won in 2006 with 68% of the vote. The district is a purelyEast Texas one stretching from theTyler andLongview–Marshall areas in the north to theLufkin–Nacogdoches area due south. Gohmert was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 primary.
RepublicanTed Poe ofHumble was one of four Republicans who defeated a Democratic challenger (Nick Lampson, now representingDistrict 22) in the 2004 elections. Poe won 56% of the vote in 2004 and 66% in 2006, making him one of only a handful of Republicans who gained from the previous election (In 2006, Democrats, who won control of the House from Republicans, generally improved on their 2004 margins). The district stretches from the northernHarris County andHouston suburbs ofSpring andKingwood to southernLiberty County and much of theGolden Triangle region. Poe was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 primary. TheLibertarian Party nominated Craig Wolfe.[7]
Longtime RepublicanSam Johnson ofPlano was 78 in 2008 but chose not to retire. He won the Republican nomination. Tom Daley was the Democratic nominee and Christopher J. Claytor was the Libertarian nominee.
This district includes several northern and northeastern suburbs ofDallas, including southwesternCollin County (including Plano andMcKinney) and northeasternDallas County including large portions ofGarland andRichardson, as well as some northern portions of Dallas itself. The district is heavilyCaucasian, upper-middle class, and Republican, with incomes averaging around the $75,000 range.
RepublicanRalph Hall ofRockwall, the oldest living member of the House of Representatives at the time, faced Democratic nominee Glenn Melancon.CQ Politics considered the race 'Safe Republican'.
Hall has represented the district since 1980, first elected as an "old-time" conservative Democrat before becoming a Republican in 2004. He won the 2008 primary election, defeating foreign relations expert Joshua Kowert; businessman and NASCAR team owner Gene Christensen; and formerFrisco mayor Kathy Seei.
Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Dallas, was first elected in 2002 to a heavily Republican district comprising east Dallas and its neighboring suburbs, and stretching to the south and east to a number of small East Texas counties. A favorite among fiscal conservatives in Texas, Hensarling is a potential challenger for the U.S. Senate in 2012 should the incumbent Republican,Kay Bailey Hutchison, retire. In 2008, Hensarling is expected to win another term in this district despite recent Democratic gains inDallas County. Hensarling was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 primary.
Twelve-term RepublicanJoe Barton ofEnnis was the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee until Democrats took over the House in 2006. The district stretches fromArlington southward to several east central Texas counties all the way toTrinity County, which is west of Lufkin and is heavily Republican. Barton won the 2008 primary, and faced Democratic winner Ludwig Otto in the general election.
Incumbent RepublicanJohn Culberson faced Democratic businessmanMichael Skelly in this Houston area district. CQ Politics considered this race 'Leans Republican'.
Culberson won a surprisingly modest 59% of the vote in 2006 in what is otherwise a normally strong Republican district. He was still favored to win in 2008, given the 2006 anti-Republican trend and the normally Republican voting trend of this mainly suburban district, which is among the most affluent in the nation. Skelly, a former executive ofHorizon Wind Energy, earned an MBA from Harvard after serving in thePeace Corps. He currently serves on Houston MayorBill White's Green Building Advisory Committee.
The district, which was once represented by former PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush, includes much of heavily Republican west Houston—such as River Oaks, Uptown and Upper Kirby, Memorial/Spring Branch area, and the island cities of Bellaire, West University Place, and Jersey Village, as well as many unincorporated areas of northwestHarris County including a large chunk of the Cypress-Fairbanks area. The district also includes the heavily Democratic Neartown area. No Democrat has served this district since 1966, before the district was based in its current location.
RepublicanKevin Brady ofThe Woodlands represents a strongly GOP district centered on the northern suburbs and exurbs of Houston and Beaumont as well as theHuntsville andLake Livingston areas, winning two thirds of the vote in 2004 and 2006. The district was expected to remain in Republican hands; no Democrat has won this district 1978. Brady won the 2008 primary and faced Democrat Kent Hargett.
Sophomore DemocratAl Green was not expected to face a serious challenge in 2008 for his heavily Democratic district, which is situated in southwest Houston and includes Houston's Southside, as well as the Mission Bend and Alief areas (which have large Asian-American populations) and several heavily black and Hispanic northeastern neighborhoods of Missouri City. He was elected by a 3 to 1 margin in 2004 after defeating displaced incumbent Congressman and fellow DemocratChris Bell in the primary (Bell was moved out of his previous district in the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by then-House Majority LeaderTom DeLay), and won a second term unopposed in 2006. Green was renominated, while no Republicans ran in the 2008 primary.
Incumbent Republican nomineeMichael McCaul ofAustin was challenged by Democratic nomineeLarry Joe Doherty, a legal ethics attorney and former TV courtroom judge, who had defeatedDan Grant in the primary. CQ Politics considered this race 'Republican Favored'. In 2006, McCaul won only 55% of the vote against Democratic challenger, Ted Ankrum, andLibertarianMichael Badnarik.
This Republican-leaning district stretches from north Austin intoBrenham traveling all the way to several far western and northwestern suburbs ofHouston.
Midland RepublicanMike Conaway representsGeorge W. Bush's strongest district in the 2004 election. He won 77% of the vote in 2004 and was one of only a handful of Republicans who ran unopposed in 2006. Conaway's district stretches from theMidland andSan Angelo areas to several mostly rural areas northwest ofAustin. No Democrat ran in the 2008 primary.
RepublicanKay Granger, who is considered a moderate by Texas Republican standards, won two thirds of the vote in 2006, outperforming most of her fellow Texas Republican colleagues. The popularFort Worth-based Granger was expected to win re-election in 2008 in this district comprising western areas of Fort Worth and surrounding areas.
RepublicanRon Paul is best known for his stronglibertarian views. His slogan, "The Taxpayers' Best Friend", emphasizes his strong — and sometimes controversial — takes on fiscal conservatism, while his social policies, which includes ending the federalwar on drugs and legalizingmarijuana, as well as his belief that the federal government should not be involved in wedge issues such asgay marriage, leading to a more negative nickname,"Dr. No", for his votes against much of the legislative agenda of both parties in Congress.
The 73-year-old physician is a resident ofSurfside. Paul was a Republican candidate in the 2008 presidential election (his second, following his run as Libertarian Party nominee in1988), and ran un-opposed for re-election.
In 2006, Ron Paul won 60% of the vote against Democratic opponent Shane Sklar, a young rancher and executive director of the Independent Cattlemen's Association of Texas (ICA) who ran on a promise to serve as a fiscally conservativeBlue Dog Democrat and received a slightly more favorable rating from theNRA Political Victory Fund,[8] in an attempt to defeat the popular Paul. In 2008, Paul was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the primary. The district extends from several far southern and southeastern areas of Houston, includingGalveston andBrazoria County, to theBay City,Wharton County, andVictoria areas.
DemocratRubén Hinojosa ofMercedes won 62% of the vote in 2004 in a South Texas district that had to be realigned following a Supreme Court decision that made the neighboring 23rd District unconstitutional. Hinojosa, who was 68 in 2008, won the Democratic nomination.
DemocratSilvestre Reyes representsEl Paso and is the Chairman of thePermanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which could make him a target of some conservative Republicans over issues relating to immigration in spite of the fact that Reyes was a former border patrol agent. Still, the district remains overwhelmingly Democratic due to its large Hispanic population, and Reyes is popular with his constituents. He won two thirds of the 2004 vote in a district that swung strongly in favor ofJohn Kerry, and won with no Republican challenger in 2006. Reyes was renominated, while no Republican ran in the 2008 primary.
DemocratChet Edwards has been targeted for defeat in many recent elections. His district is widely seen as arguably the most heavily Republican district held by a Democrat, and won a close election in 2004, but recovered in 2006 with a strong eighteen point win. The district, which includes the official residence ofGeorge W. Bush, stretches from several rural areas south of Fort Worth to Edwards' hometown ofWaco and theBrazos Valley region, which comprises theBryan–College Station area. This district gave George W. Bush 70% of the vote in 2004. Edwards won the 2008 Democratic nomination.
DemocratSheila Jackson Lee represents one of the most heavily Democratic areas in the state, covering several largely poor and African-American areas of Houston (including downtown Houston) and whose three previous representatives (Barbara Jordan,Mickey Leland, andCraig Washington) were all African-Americans and took staunch liberal stances.
A regular duringC-SPAN's gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House while it is in session, Jackson Lee has also been seen as controversial, and is considered by some to be one of the "meanest" members of the House, as she is known to have one of the highest turnover rates of any congressional staff.[citation needed] Still, she is a well-respected figure in the district, and has been re-elected with at least 80% of the vote many times. Jackson Lee won the Democratic nomination.
RepublicanRandy Neugebauer ofLubbock won re-election in 2006 with 68% of the vote. His district is heavily Republican and stretches from Lubbock toBig Spring andAbilene and was created in the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting, which in 2004 led to the defeat of Neugebauer's challenger, conservative DemocratCharles Stenholm.
DemocratCharlie Gonzalez represents much of heavily Democratic, largely Hispanic innerSan Antonio, including the downtown area. Gonzalez won 87% of the vote in 2006 against a Libertarian opponent and two thirds of the 2004 vote. Gonzalez was heavily favored to win re-election to this seat, which was once held by his father,Henry Gonzalez for nearly four decades. The Gonzalez family had represented this district for 47 years as of 2008.
Longtime representativeLamar S. Smith was the only Republican to win among the five congressional districts realigned as a result of a Supreme Court ruling that declared the nearby 23rd District unconstitutional as a result of allegations of diluted Hispanic voting power during the controversial2003 Texas redistricting. Smith ended up being moved into a district that now encompasses several northern San Antonio suburbs as well as theTexas Hill Country and western parts of Travis County. The district includes a heavily Democratic portion of Austin, including the area around theUniversity of Texas at Austin. However, it is no match for the heavily Republican areas around San Antonio. The Supreme Court decision restored a large amount of territory that had been shifted toHenry Bonilla's district in 2003. Smith won 60% of the vote in 2006 against six challengers, including two Democrats, in a special election that resulted from the ruling. Smith was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 primary.
This race was considered a key race because the seat was previously held by formerHouse Majority LeaderTom DeLay, as well as the fact that the seat was represented by a Democrat,Nick Lampson, whose victory was largely attributed to Republicans being forced to run a write-in campaign.[10] The Republican candidate wasPete Olson who faced the incumbent, Lampson.
Olson clearly led the race in the weeks leading up to election day. On October 22, 2008, poll byJohn Zogby and theHouston Chronicle stated that Olson had a 17-point lead over Lampson.[11][12][13] On October 30, 2008,Larry Sabato predicted in hisCrystal Ball newsletter that Olson's congressional race to be a "Republican Pick Up."[14]
Ciro Rodriguez, a former Democratic congressman from San Antonio, faced Republican nominee Bexar County CommissionerLyle Larson and Libertarian Lani Connolly in this majority-Hispanic district. CQ Politics considered this race 'Leans Democratic'.
Rodriguez defeated incumbent RepublicanHenry Bonilla in a December runoff after finishing in second place to Bonilla during the November general election, when Rodriguez himself ran out of money but was later helped by theDCCC. He was a former congressman who represented the nearby 28th District until a controversial redistricting plan that made this district more heavily Republican and favorable to Bonilla resulted in his defeat by that district's current representative,Henry Cuellar. Bonilla was seen as an ally of Tom DeLay, who engineered the redistricting. Also, a Supreme Court ruled Bonilla's district, which was situated in the Hill Country suburbs of San Antonio, unconstitutional over claims that Hispanic voting rights were diluted in the redistricting. This resulted in the 23rd becoming much more Democratic with the addition of south San Antonio, which is Rodriguez's home base, and the removal of the Hill Country portions from the district, which were moved toLamar S. Smith's district.
Larson is a public official and businessman in San Antonio. A graduate of Texas A&M University, he worked as a salesman for Ethicon, a subsidiary ofJohnson & Johnson. In 1991 and 1993, Larson was elected to theSan Antonio City Council. In 1996, he was elected as one of the four Bexar County commissioners.[citation needed] He defeated attorney and bankerQuico Canseco in the Republican primary for the U.S. House in 2008.
In addition to southern San Antonio and Bexar County, the district also includes several northwestern areas of San Antonio. Other areas represented in the district include the border towns ofDel Rio andEagle Pass, as well asBig Bend National Park and easternEl Paso County. It includes more than 600 miles of the Texas–Mexico border.
Austin DemocratLloyd Doggett represents a Democratic-leaning constituency that is centered on theAustin area and several smaller rural areas to the south and east which either lean Republican or strongly favor Republicans. Doggett won 67% of the vote against a largely unknown Republican opponent who initially ran as a Libertarian until the previous 25th district was thrown out in a Supreme Court ruling that declared the nearby 23rd District ofHenry Bonilla unconstitutional; this district was realigned as a result of the controversial mid-decade redistricting engineered by former House Majority LeaderTom DeLay, which realigned Doggett's district into a linear form that was derisively referred to as the "fajita strip".
RepublicanMichael Burgess ofLewisville won 60% of the vote in 2006 against an underfunded Democratic opponent, a six-percent drop from his 2004 victory against another Democrat. However, Burgess remains assured of a safe seat, as his seat takes in most ofDenton County as well as parts ofFort Worth and lean heavily in favor of the Republican Party. The district was once represented by formerHouse Majority LeaderDick Armey, who engineered the 1994Republican Revolution along with former House SpeakerNewt Gingrich.
The District is represented by moderate DemocratSolomon Ortiz, the Dean of theCongressional Hispanic Caucus. Ortiz received 57% of the vote in 2006, a six-point decline from his 2004 performance, which was somewhat of an anomaly given the strong anti-Republican voting mood of 2006, where Democrats either performed above their 2004 performance or ran without opposition. In 2004,George W. Bush carried this South Texas district, which includesCorpus Christi as well asBrownsville andSouth Padre Island.
Conservative DemocratHenry Cuellar won 68% of the vote in 2006 against another Democrat who received 20% of the vote. Even though Cuellar is becoming a rising star in the Democratic Party, and has even been seen by some as a potential Democratic challenger to SenatorJohn Cornyn, Cuellar could face a challenge for his seat, which includesLaredo (where Cuellar resides) and areas south of San Antonio, due to his somewhat conservative voting record. For instance, Cuellar received the backing of the conservativeClub for Growth during his 2006 primary campaign againstCiro Rodriguez, his predecessor, who later went on to win the 23rd District held by RepublicanHenry Bonilla, whom Cuellar nearly defeated in 2002. Cuellar won the Democratic nomination.
DemocratGene Green of Houston has won re-election easily without facing a primary challenge in this strongly Latino, heavily Democratic district, which covers eastern portions of Houston as well as some of its suburbs.
Incumbent Democratic nomineeEddie Bernice Johnson of Dallas defeated Republican nominee Fred Wood 82.6–15.8%. This district includes the inner city areas of Dallas, including its downtown areas, as well as several southernDallas County suburbs south of the city which boast a large African-American population.
John Carter ofRound Rock won 59% of the vote in 2006 against a token Democratic opponent. His district, which was created as a result of the 2000 census, stretches across a large segment of Central Texas from the northernWilliamson County suburbs of Austin to the giganticFort Hood military base, all the way north toStephenville. This description of the district would make it an opportunity for theFighting Dems, a faction of military veterans who are members of the Democratic Party. Radio producer Brian P. Ruiz ofHutto won the Democratic nomination.
Six-term incumbent and conservative RepublicanPete Sessions faced Democrat Eric Roberson in this Dallas district. Sessions was considered to be a vulnerable candidate for a number of reasons. First, he is known to have close ties to disgraced lobbyistJack Abramoff, an issue that is likely to become the focus of his Democratic challenger's campaign in 2008. Also, while Sessions improved on his margin from his hotly contested 2004 race against DemocratMartin Frost, who was displaced from his previous district as a result of the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by formerHouse Majority Leader and Abramoff ally,Tom DeLay, it was only by a 2% margin (from 54% in 2004 to 56% in 2006). Contrarily,George W. Bush carried 59% of the vote in the district to 41% of the vote for John Kerry in 2004. Finally, in 2006, Democrats made unexpected gains inDallas County, winning theDistrict Attorney office and all contested state district judgeships in the county, along with a number of countywide offices on the basis of corruption within the local Republican establishment as well as momentum gained from Democratic Dallas County SheriffLupe Valdez's unexpected 2004 victory.
Roberson won against Steve Love in the April 8 party runoff election to determine the Democratic nominee.[16] This Republican-leaning district includes several northern affluent areas ofDallas, includingHighland Park, and significant chunks of the suburbs ofIrving andRichardson.
District results
County results
