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2018 Texas Senate elections
General	November 6, 2018
Primary	March 6, 2018
Primary Runoff	May 22, 2018

Republicans maintained their majority but lost theirsupermajority in the 2018 elections forTexas State Senate, since, after the election, they controlled19 seats toDemocrats'12.Fifteen of 31 Senate seats were up for election. At the time of the election, Republicans held21 seats to Democrats'10.

The Republican Party maintained itstrifecta in Texas in 2018 by holding its majorities in thestate Senate andHouse and by retaining thegovernorship.

Because state senators in Texas serve2-4-4 terms, some winning candidates in this election served through 2022 and played a role inTexas' redistricting process. Congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn by the state legislature.

The Texas State Senate was one of 87 state legislative chambers with elections in2018. There are 99 chambers throughout the country.

Texas state senators serve2-4-4 terms, where senators serve one two-year term and two four-year terms each decade.

For more information about the Democratic primary,click here.
For more information about the Republican primary,click here.

Post-election analysis

See also:State legislative elections, 2018

The Republican Party maintained control of both chambers of the Texas State Legislature in the 2018 election, but the Texas State Senate lost its Republicansupermajority status after it no longer held the minimum 21 seats necessary. In the state Senate, 15 out of 31 seats were up for election. The Republican Texas State Senate majority was reduced from 21-10 to 19-12. One Republican incumbent was defeated in the primary and two Republican incumbents were defeated in the general election.

The Texas House of Representatives held elections for all 150 seats. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives was reduced from 93-55 to 83-67. Two seats were vacant before the election. Four Democratic incumbents and two Republican incumbents were defeated in the primary. One Democratic incumbent and one Republican incumbent were defeated in primary runoffs. Eight Republican incumbents were defeated in the general election.

National background

On November 6, 2018, 87 of the nation's 99 state legislative chambers held regularly scheduled elections for 6,073 of 7,383 total seats, meaning that nearly 82 percent of all state legislative seats were up for election.

• Entering the 2018 election, Democrats held 42.6 percent, Republicans held 56.8 percent, and independents and other parties held 0.6 percent of the seats up for regular election.
• Following the 2018 election, Democrats held 47.3 percent, Republicans held 52.3 percent, and independents and other parties held 0.4 percent of the seats up for regular election.
• A total of 469 incumbents were defeated over the course of the election cycle, with roughly one-third of them defeated in the primary.

Want more information?

• Incumbents defeated in 2018's state legislative elections
• 2018 election analysis: Partisan balance of state legislative chambers
• 2018 election analysis: Number of state legislators by party
• 2018 election analysis: State legislative supermajorities

Candidates

See also:Statistics on state legislative candidates, 2018

General candidates

Texas State Senate General Election 2018
Incumbents are marked with an (i) after their name. = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Office	Democratic	Republican	Other
District 2	Kendall Scudder	Bob Hall (i)	Did not make the ballot: Thomas Gotcher  (Libertarian Party)
District 3	Shirley Layton	Robert Nichols (i)	Bruce Quarles (Libertarian Party)
District 5	Meg Walsh	Charles Schwertner (i)	Amy Lyons (Libertarian Party) Did not make the ballot: Areej Siddig  (Independent)
District 7	David Romero	Paul Bettencourt (i)	Tom Glass (Libertarian Party)
District 8	Mark Phariss	Angela Paxton
District 9	Gwenn Burud	Kelly Hancock (i)	Did not make the ballot: Timothy Strong  (Libertarian Party)
District 10	Beverly Powell	Konni Burton (i)
District 14	Kirk Watson (i)	George Hindman	Micah Verlander (Libertarian Party) Did not make the ballot: Nik Sturm  (Independent)
District 15	John Whitmire (i)	Randy Orr	Gilberto Velasquez Jr. (Libertarian Party)
District 16	Nathan Johnson	Donald Huffines (i)
District 17	Rita Lucido	Joan Huffman (i)	Lauren LaCount (Libertarian Party)
District 23	Royce West (i)
District 25	Steven Kling	Donna Campbell (i)	Did not make the ballot: Roxanne Marie Alvarez  (Independent)
District 30	Kevin Lopez	Pat Fallon	Did not make the ballot: Keely Briggs  (Independent)
District 31		Kel Seliger (i)	Jack Westbrook (Libertarian Party)

Primary runoff candidates

Texas State Senate Primary Runoff Election 2018
Incumbents are marked with an (i) after their name.
Office	Democratic	Republican	Other
District 17	Rita Lucido Fran Watson

Primary candidates

See also:Texas state legislative Republican primaries, 2018 andTexas state legislative Democratic primaries, 2018

The candidate list below is based on a candidate filing list provided by the Texas Secretary of State on December 13, 2017.^[1][2] Information was also derived from the Texas Republican Party's database.^[3] The filing deadline for the March primary was on December 11, 2017.(I) denotes an incumbent.

Texas State Senate elections, 2018
Incumbents are marked with an (i) after their name. = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
Office	Democratic	Republican	Other
District 2	Kendall Scudder	Bob Hall (i)	Did not make the ballot: Thomas Gotcher  (Libertarian Party)
District 3	Shirley Layton	Robert Nichols (i)	Bruce Quarles (Libertarian Party)
District 5	Meg Walsh	Charles Schwertner (i)	Amy Lyons (Libertarian Party) Did not make the ballot: Areej Siddig  (Independent)
District 6	Carol Alvarado Ana Hernandez Mia Mundy	Martha Fierro
District 7	David Romero	Paul Bettencourt (i)	Tom Glass (Libertarian Party)
District 8	Mark Phariss	Angela Paxton
District 9	Gwenn Burud	Kelly Hancock (i)	Did not make the ballot: Timothy Strong  (Libertarian Party)
District 10	Beverly Powell	Konni Burton (i)
District 14	Kirk Watson (i)	George Hindman	Micah Verlander (Libertarian Party) Did not make the ballot: Nik Sturm  (Independent)
District 15	John Whitmire (i)	Randy Orr	Gilberto Velasquez Jr. (Libertarian Party)
District 16	Nathan Johnson	Donald Huffines (i)
District 17	Rita Lucido	Joan Huffman (i)	Lauren LaCount (Libertarian Party)
District 19	Pete Gallego Roland Gutierrez Charles Urbina Jones Tomas Uresti	Jesse Alaniz Peter P. Flores Carlos Antonio Raymond	Tony Valdivia (Libertarian Party)
District 23	Royce West (i)
District 25	Steven Kling	Donna Campbell (i)	Did not make the ballot: Roxanne Marie Alvarez  (Independent)
District 30	Kevin Lopez	Pat Fallon	Did not make the ballot: Keely Briggs  (Independent)
District 31		Kel Seliger (i)	Jack Westbrook (Libertarian Party)

Primary election vote totals

Below are election results for all contested primary elections in the Texas State Senate in 2018. All results are unofficial.

Texas State Senate, District 2 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Bob HallIncumbent	53.24%	35,561
Cindy Burkett	46.76%	31,239
Total Votes		66,800
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Republican Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 5 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Meg Walsh	71.13%	22,514
Brian Cronin	16.93%	5,360
Glenn Williams	11.94%	3,779
Total Votes		31,653
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 5 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Charles SchwertnerIncumbent	75.09%	49,962
Harold Ramm	24.91%	16,576
Total Votes		66,538
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Republican Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 8 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Mark Phariss	50.91%	16,689
Brian Chaput	49.09%	16,094
Total Votes		32,783
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 8 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Angela Paxton	54.35%	32,653
Phillip Huffines	45.65%	27,421
Total Votes		60,074
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Republican Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 10 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Beverly Powell	61.56%	23,052
Allison Campolo	38.44%	14,392
Total Votes		37,444
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 15 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
John WhitmireIncumbent	74.91%	27,220
Damian Lacroix	17.91%	6,506
Hank Segelke	7.18%	2,609
Total Votes		36,335
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 16 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Nathan Johnson	69.59%	25,330
Joe Bogen	30.41%	11,068
Total Votes		36,398
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 17 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Rita Lucido	48.95%	17,603
Fran Watson	35.09%	12,621
Ahmad Hassan	15.96%	5,739
Total Votes		35,963
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 17 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Joan HuffmanIncumbent	72.64%	36,668
Kristin Tassin	27.36%	13,808
Total Votes		50,476
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 25 Democratic Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Steven Kling	51.00%	22,846
Jack Guerra	49.00%	21,947
Total Votes		44,793
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 25 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Donna CampbellIncumbent	73.73%	58,796
Shannon McClendon	26.27%	20,952
Total Votes		79,748
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Republican Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 30 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Pat Fallon	62.01%	53,796
Craig EstesIncumbent	22.61%	19,614
Craig Carter	15.38%	13,346
Total Votes		86,756
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Texas State Senate, District 31 Republican Primary, 2018
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Kel SeligerIncumbent	50.42%	40,653
Mike Canon	31.39%	25,314
Victor Leal	18.19%	14,669
Total Votes		80,636
Source:Texas Secretary of State, "2018 Democratic Party Primary Election, Election Night Returns," accessed March 7, 2018These election results are unofficial and will be updated after official vote totals are made available.

Margins of victory

See also:Margin of victory analysis for the 2018 state legislative elections

Amargin of victory (MOV) analysis for the2018 Texas State Senate races is presented in this section. MOV represents the percentage of total votes that separated the winner and the second-place finisher. For example, if the winner of a race received 47 percent of the vote and the second-place finisher received 45 percent of the vote, the MOV is 2 percent.

The table below presents the following figures for each party:

• Elections won
• Elections won by less than 10 percentage points
• Elections won without opposition
• Average margin of victory^[4]

Texas State Senate: 2018 Margin of Victory Analysis
Party	Elections won	Elections won by less than 10%	Unopposed elections	Average margin of victory[4]
Democratic	5	2	1	22.9%
Republican	10	3	0	26.1%
Other	0	0	0	N/A
Total	15	5	1	24.5%

The margin of victory in each race is presented below. The list is sorted from the closest MOV to the largest (including unopposed races).

Texas State Senate: 2018 Margin of Victory by District
District	Winning Party	Losing Party	Margin of Victory
Texas State Senate District 8	Republican	Democratic	2.4%
Texas State Senate District 10	Democratic	Republican	3.5%
Texas State Senate District 17	Republican	Democratic	4.6%
Texas State Senate District 9	Republican	Democratic	8.1%
Texas State Senate District 16	Democratic	Republican	8.3%
Texas State Senate District 5	Republican	Democratic	13.9%
Texas State Senate District 25	Republican	Democratic	15.4%
Texas State Senate District 7	Republican	Democratic	17.4%
Texas State Senate District 2	Republican	Democratic	18.7%
Texas State Senate District 15	Democratic	Republican	33.0%
Texas State Senate District 14	Democratic	Republican	46.7%
Texas State Senate District 30	Republican	Democratic	47.8%
Texas State Senate District 3	Republican	Democratic	57.7%
Texas State Senate District 31	Republican	Libertarian	75.0%
Texas State Senate District 23	Democratic	None	Unopposed

Seats flipped

See also:State legislative seats that changed party control, 2018

The below map displays each seat in theTexas State Senate which changed partisan hands as a result of the 2018 elections, shaded according to the partisan affiliation of the winner in 2018. Hover over a shaded district for more information.

State legislative seats flipped in 2018, Texas State Senate
District	Incumbent	2018 winner	Direction of flip
Texas State Senate District 10	Konni Burton	Beverly Powell	R to D
Texas State Senate District 16	Donald Huffines	Nathan Johnson	R to D

Process to become a candidate

See also:Ballot access requirements for political candidates in Texas

See statutes:Title 9 of the Texas Election Code

A candidate inTexas may run with an officially recognized political party, as an independent, or as a write-in.

For major party candidates

In order to run with a major political party, a candidate must file an application with the county or state party chair and pay a filing fee. A candidate also has the option of filing a petition in lieu of the filing fee. Application and petition forms are available through local party officials or theTexas Secretary of State. The regular filing period for the primary election begins on the 30th day before the date of the regular filing deadline, which is 6 p.m. on the second Monday in December of an odd-numbered year.^[5]

A chart detailing the signature and filing requirements for each particular office can be accessedhere.^[6]

For minor party candidates

State-qualified minor parties nominate candidates by convention. To be considered for nomination by a convention, a minor party candidate must file an application for nomination no later than 6 p.m. on the second Monday in December of an odd-numbered year, preceding the minor party’s convention. A candidate seeking nomination for a state or district office must file with the state party chair. Candidates for county or precinct offices must file applications with county party chairs. A candidate nominated via convention must either pay a filing fee (equal to the filing fee paid by major party candidates in primary elections) or submit a petition a petition in lieu of paying the filing fee.^[7][8]

For independent candidates

A candidate may have his or her name placed on the general election ballot as an independent candidate if he or she is not affiliated with a political party.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

To run as an independent, a candidate must file a declaration of intent with the county judge (county or precinct offices) or theTexas Secretary of State (district and state offices) during the same filing period as major and minor party candidates.^[10][14]

This paperwork must include signatures of voters who have not participated in the primary election or the runoff primary election of a party that has nominated, at either election, a candidate for the office the petitioning candidate seeks.^[10][15]

A chart detailing the signature and filing requirements for each particular office can be accessedhere.^[10]

For write-in candidates

In order to become a write-in candidate in the general election, the candidate must file a declaration of candidacy with theTexas Secretary of State or the county judge, as appropriate, no later than 5 p.m. of the 78th day before general election day.^[16][17]

The declaration must be accompanied by either a filing fee or a nominating petition signed by a certain number of qualified voters. A chart detailing the signature and filing requirements for each particular office can be accessedhere.^[16][18]

Qualifications

See also:State legislature candidate requirements by state

To be eligible to serve in theTexas State Senate, a candidate must be:^[19]

• A U.S. citizen;
• 26 years old before the general election;
• A five-year resident of Texas before the general election; and
• A district resident for 1 year prior to the general election.

Salaries and per diem

See also:Comparison of state legislative salaries

When sworn in

See also:When state legislators assume office after a general election

Texas legislators assume office at the beginning of the legislative session, which starts at noon on the second Tuesday in January in the year after the election.^[21][22]

Texas political history

See also:Partisan composition of state senates andState government trifectas

Party control

2018

In the 2018 elections, the Republican majority in the Texas State Senate was reduced from 21-10 to 19-12.

2016

In the2016 elections, no changes occurred to the partisan balance of the Texas State Senate.

Trifectas

Astate government trifecta is a term that describes single-party government, when one political party holds the governor's office and has majorities in both chambers of the legislature in a state government. Republicans in Texas gained astate government trifecta as a result of the 2002 elections by taking control of the state House.

Wave election analysis

See also:Wave elections (1918-2016)

The termwave election is frequently used to describe an election cycle in which one party makessignificant electoral gains. How many seats would Republicans have had to lose for the 2018 midterm election to be considered a wave election?

Ballotpedia examined the results of the 50 election cycles that occurred between 1918 and 2016—spanning from PresidentWoodrow Wilson's (D) second midterm in 1918 toDonald Trump's (R) first presidential election in 2016.We define wave elections as the 20 percent of elections in that period resulting in the greatest seat swings against the president's party.

Applying this definition tostate legislative elections, we found that Republicans needed to lose494 seats for 2018 to qualify as awave election.

The chart below shows the number of seats the president's party lost in the 10 state legislative waves from 1918 to 2016.Click here to read the full report.

Competitiveness

Every year, Ballotpedia uses official candidate lists from each state to examine the competitiveness of every state legislative race in the country. Nationally, there has been a steady decline in electoral competitiveness since 2010. Most notable is that the number of districts with general election competition has dropped by more than 10 percent.

Results from 2016

Click here to read the full study »

Historical context

See also:Competitiveness in State Legislative Elections: 1972-2014

Uncontested elections: In 2014, 32.8 percent of Americans lived in states with an uncontested state senate election. Similarly, 40.4 percent of Americans lived in states with uncontested house elections. Primary elections were uncontested even more frequently, with 61 percent of people living in states with no contested primaries. Uncontested elections often occur in locations that are so politically one-sided that the result of an election would be a foregone conclusion regardless of whether it was contested or not.

Open seats: In most cases, an incumbent will run for re-election, which decreases the number of open seats available. In 2014, 83 percent of the 6,057 seats up for election saw the incumbent running for re-election. The states that impose term limits on their legislatures typically see a higher percentage of open seats in a given year because a portion of incumbents in each election are forced to leave office. Overall, the number of open seats decreased from 2012 to 2014, dropping from 21.2 percent in 2012 to 17.0 percent in 2014.

Incumbent win rates: Ballotpedia'scompetitiveness analysis of elections between 1972 and 2014 documented the high propensity for incumbents to win re-election in state legislative elections. In fact, since 1972, the win rate for incumbents had not dropped below 90 percent—with the exception of 1974, when 88 percent of incumbents were re-elected to their seats. Perhaps most importantly, the win rate for incumbents generally increased over time. In 2014, 96.5 percent of incumbents were able to retain their seats. Common convention holds that incumbents are able to leverage their office to maintain their seat. However, the high incumbent win rate may actually be a result of incumbents being more likely to hold seats in districts that are considered safe for their party.

Marginal primaries: Often, competitiveness is measured by examining the rate of elections that have been won by amounts that are considered marginal (5 percent or less). During the 2014 election, 90.1 percent of primary and general election races were won by margins higher than 5 percent. Interestingly, it is usually the case that only one of the two races—primary or general—will be competitive at a time. This means that if a district's general election is competitive, typically one or more of the district's primaries were won by more than 5 percent. The reverse is also true: If a district sees a competitive primary, it is unlikely that the general election for that district will be won by less than 5 percent. Primaries often see very low voter turnout in comparison to general elections. In 2014, there were only 27 million voters for state legislative primaries, but approximately 107 million voters for the state legislative general elections.

Pivot Counties

See also:Pivot Counties by state

One of 254 Texas counties—0.4 percent—is aPivot County. Pivot Counties are counties that voted forBarack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012 and forDonald Trump (R) in 2016. Altogether, the nation had 206 Pivot Counties, with most being concentrated in upper midwestern and northeastern states.

In the 2016 presidential election,Donald Trump (R) won Texas with 52.2 percent of the vote.Hillary Clinton (D) received 43.2 percent. In presidential elections between 1900 and 2016, Texas cast votes for the winning presidential candidate 66.7 percent of the time. In that same time frame, Texas supported Democratic candidates slightly more often than Republicans, 53.3 to 46.7 percent. The state, however, favored Republicans in every presidential election between 2000 and 2016.

Presidential results by legislative district

The following table details results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections by state Senate districts in Texas. Click[show] to expand the table. The "Obama," "Romney," "Clinton," and "Trump" columns describe the percent of the vote each presidential candidate received in the district. The "2012 Margin" and "2016 Margin" columns describe the margin of victory between the two presidential candidates in those years. The "Party Control" column notes which party held that seat heading into the 2018 general election. Data on the results of the 2012 and 2016 presidential elections broken down by state legislative districts was compiled byDaily Kos.^[26][27]

See also

• Texas State Senate
• Texas State Legislature
• State legislative elections, 2018
• Texas state legislative Democratic primaries, 2018
• Texas state legislative Republican primaries, 2018

External links

Suggest a link

• Texas State Legislature

Footnotes

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