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 County results Congressional district resultsBentsen: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Boulter: 50–60% 60–70% | |||||||||||||||||
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The1988 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 8, 1988. IncumbentDemocratic U.S.SenatorLloyd Bentsen won re-election to a fourth term, defeatingRepublicanU.S. RepresentativeBeau Boulter. Bentsen easily won the Democratic nomination for another term, while Boulter came through arun-off in the Republicanprimary defeating Wes Gilbreath. After winning renomination, Bentsen was chosen by Democratic presidential nomineeMichael Dukakis as hisvice-presidentialrunning mate and therefore ran for both the Senate and the vice-presidency at the same time. Although the Dukakis/Bentsen presidential ticket lost both the general election andthe election in Texas by 12.6 points, Bentsen was always the favorite for the Senate election and defeated Boulter by 19 points.
As of 2026[update], this was the last time a Democrat won a U.S. Senate election in Texas.[1][2]
In the Democratic primary, Senator Lloyd Bentsen defeated the same opponent he had beaten in 1982, Joe Sullivan, apsychology professor fromSan Antonio.[3]
Bentsen had been a senator from Texas since first winning election in 1970 and had been re-elected in 1976 and 1982. He was also Chairman of theSenate Finance Committee and the clear favorite for re-election in 1988.[4] Sullivan stood on a platform calling for reduced spending by the federal government, but had been easily defeated by Bentsen in the 1982 Democratic primary.[4] This was repeated in 1988 with Bentsen winning the primary with over 80% of the vote.[3]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Lloyd Bentsen (incumbent) | 1,365,736 | 84.8 | |
| Democratic | Joe Sullivan | 244,805 | 15.2 | |
| Total votes | 1,610,541 | 100 | ||
Four candidates competed for the Republican nomination; U.S. representative Beau Boulter, former state representative Milton Fox, millionaireHouston businessman Wes Gilbreath and businessman Ned Snead.[6] Boulter was a two-term representative for the13th district, while Gilbreath was competing in his first election, but spent $500,000 on the primary.[7]
Wes Gilbreath led in the March primary with 36.7%, but as no candidate won a majority, went into a run-off election against Beau Boulter who came second with 30.5%.[5]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Wes Gilbreath | 275,080 | 36.7 | |
| Republican | Beau Boulter | 228,676 | 30.5 | |
| Republican | Milton Fox | 138,031 | 18.4 | |
| Republican | Ned Snead | 107,560 | 14.4 | |
| Total votes | 749,347 | 100 | ||
There were few policy differences between Boulter and Gilbreath, with both candidates being conservatives who opposedabortion and called for reduced government spending.[8] Gilbreath spent about one million dollars of his money in his contest for the primary,[9] while Boulter spent about $250,000.[8] However Boulter won endorsements from many Texas Republican leaders,[9] including the candidates who had come third and fourth in the March primary, as well as from anti-abortion groups.[8]
Boulter won the April run-off for the Republican nomination with just over 60% of the vote.[8]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Beau Boulter | 111,134 | 60.2 | |
| Republican | Wes Gilbreath | 73,573 | 39.8 | |
| Total votes | 184,707 | 100 | ||
In July 1988, Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis chose Lloyd Bentsen to be his vice-presidential running mate.[10] As the Texas Democrats had already nominated Bentsen for the Senate, he could not be replaced on the ballot.[10] Bentsen was able to run both for the Senate and for vice president asLyndon Johnson had gotten Texas to change the law in 1960 to allow him to do the same in the1960 election.[11]
However, Beau Boulter attacked Bentsen for running for both the Senate and vice presidency, calling it arrogant, unethical and possibly illegal.[12] Boulter and theNational Republican Senatorial Committee filed a complaint with theFederal Election Commission (FEC) claiming that the dual candidacy violated federal campaign finance laws as any spending in one race would unfairly affect the other campaign, however the FEC rejected the complaint and this decision was confirmed by theUnited States courts of appeals.[13] Boulter continued to attack Bentsen over the dual candidacy running acampaign ad in August 1988 mocking Bentsen for trying to ride two horses at the same time.[14]
Lloyd Bentsen was always the favorite for the election,[15] with a large cash advantage over Beau Boulter.[16] Filings with the FEC at the beginning of August showed Bentsen had $3.9 million compared to only $14,000 for Boulter.[16] The financial advantage for Bentsen continued through the campaign and by the beginning of November Bentsen had raised $7.5 million for the senate election, while Boulter had raised $2.7 million.[17]
Boulter's campaign receive little or no official Republican support, with the Republican presidential campaign giving a not very subtle endorsement of a "Texas Ticket", which wasGeorge Bush for president and Bentsen for the Senate.[18] However Boulter hoped to benefit from Bush'scoattails and ran campaign ads pointing to his links with Bush andRonald Reagan.[19] Boulter also ran ads attacking Bentsen for supporting giving benefit toillegal immigrants, but this was denied by the Bentsen campaign.[19] Meanwhile, Bentsen ran ads showing things they said he had done for Texas such as passing a trade bill, catastrophic coverage legislation, repealing thewindfall profit tax and preserving local bus services.[19]
At the beginning of October 1988, Democratic polls showed Bentsen at least 20 points ahead of Boulter,[11] with Bentsen spending much of his time campaigning for the presidential election and very little time on the Senate election.[17]
Bentsen won the election by a wide margin over Boulter on the same ballot that he and Michael Dukakis lost thepresidential race,[20] with George Bush winning his home state of Texas with 56% of the vote compared to 43% for Dukakis.[21] Bentsen's vote total in the Senate election was the highest vote total in any Texas statewide election.[22] Boulter's showing was particularly embarrassing for the Texas GOP, given that Bush easily carried Texas by a margin nearly as large as Bentsen’s.
Bentsen received 93% of the black vote.[23]
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Lloyd Bentsen (incumbent) | 3,149,806 | 59.17% | +0.58% | |
| Republican | Beau Boulter | 2,129,228 | 40.00% | −0.50% | |
| Libertarian | Jeff Daiell | 44,572 | 0.84% | +0.08% | |
| Majority | 1,020,578 | 19.17% | +1.08% | ||
| Turnout | 5,323,606 | ||||
| Democratichold | Swing | ||||
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