The2018 Texas Senate elections took place as part of thebiennialUnited States elections.Texas voters elected state senators in 15 of the state senate's 31 districts. The winners of this election served in the86th Texas Legislature. State senators serve four-year terms in theTexas State Senate. A statewide map of Texas's state Senate districts can be obtained from the Texas Legislative Councilhere, and individual district maps can be obtained from the U.S. Censushere.
A primary election on March 6, 2018, determined which candidates appeared on the November 6general election ballot. Primary election results can be obtained from theTexas Secretary of State's website.[1]
Following the2016 elections,Republicans maintained control of the Senate with 20 members. However, they gained an extra seat by flipping the 19th District in a September special election, giving them a 21-seatsupermajority.[2]
To claim control of the chamber fromRepublicans, theDemocrats would have needed to net six Senate seats. The Democratic Party gained two seats, leaving the Republicans with a 19 to 12 majority in the chamber. Republicans maintained their supermajority, however, due to a 2015 rule change that reduced the effective vote threshold to pass legislation from 21 to 19.[3]
District 19:Pete Flores defeatedPete Gallego in a preceding special election on September 18, 2018, to flip this seat. The seat was vacated byCarlos Uresti, who resigned after multiple convictions on fraud and laundering charges.
Incumbent RepublicanBob Hall ran for re-election. Hall, a member of theTea Party movement, was challenged in the Republican primary by state representativeCindy Burkett, who ran as a moderate alternative to Hall.[7] Hall narrowly defeated Burkett in the primary and went on to defeat Democrat Kendall Scudder in the general election by a wide margin.[8]
Incumbent RepublicanVan Taylor retired to run forTexas's 3rd congressional district, which was being vacated by incumbent RepublicanSam Johnson.[9] Prior to Taylor's retirement announcement, businessman Phillip Huffines, the brother of senatorDon Huffines, announced his bid for the seat on the assumption that Taylor would run for the House. EducatorAngela Paxton, the wife ofattorney generalKen Paxton, later joined the race. Both candidates ran highly negative campaigns, spending millions of dollars on advertisements on what would become the most expensive senate primaries in state history.[10][11] Paxton won the Republican primary while Mark Pharris, a plaintiff in the lawsuit to overturn Texas's ban onsame-sex marriage, won the Democratic primary.[12] Paxton won the general election in the heavily RepublicanCollin County district.[13] This was the closest senate election in the state during the 2018 elections.
Incumbent RepublicanKonni Burton ran for re-election. She was initially elected in2014, flipping the seat after incumbent DemocratWendy Davis retired torun for governor. Democrats Allison Campolo andBeverly Powell ran in the Democratic primary to challenge Burton, with Campolo running from the progressive wing of the Democratic party while Powell ran from the moderate wing of the party.[14] Powell advanced to the general election, which saw large spending from conservative groups such asEmpower Texans to defend Burton's seat.[15] Powell narrowly defeated Burton in the general election, flipping the seat back to the Democrats.[16][17]
Incumbent RepublicanDon Huffines ran for re-election. Despite Republicans having held the 16th district for over 30 years, Huffines was seen as vulnerable due to the district's shifting demographics and Huffines' ultraconservative voting record. The district had voted forHillary Clinton by 5 percentage points in2016.[18][19]Nathan Johnson, the Democratic nominee, defeated Huffines in the general election.[16]
Incumbent RepublicanJoan Huffman ran for re-election. Although she was considered potentially vulnerable due toDonald Trump's narrow victory in the district in2016, she defeated Democrat Rita Lucido in the general election by 5 percentage points.[3][20]
Incumbent DemocratCarlos Uresti resigned after multiple convictions on fraud and laundering charges.[21] FormerU.S. RepresentativePete Gallego andTexas House representativeRoland Gutierrez ran as Democrats against RepublicanPete Flores in the special election. Flores placed first in the election, a boon to Republicans in the Democratic-leaning district, but he failed to win a majority of the vote, forcing him into a runoff with Gallego.[22] Despite stirrings of an upcoming Democraticwave election, Flores defeated Gallego in the runoff on September 18, 2018, to flip this seat, giving Republicans asupermajority of 21 seats in the Senate.[2]
IncumbentCraig Estes, considered a centrist Republican, faced conservative state representativePat Fallon in a primary race.[25][26] As the primary election approached, both campaigns grew increasingly combinative, including spars over an ad by Estes' campaign featuring Fallon in aCatholicconfessional.[27] Polling on behalf of Fallon paid for byLieutenant GovernorDan Patrick suggested that Patrick supported Fallon's primary challenge, although he made no official endorsement.[28] Fallon defeated Estes in the primary by a wide margin and went on to win the general election by an even larger margin.[29]
Incumbent RepublicanKel Seliger ran for re-election. Seliger was considered vulnerable to a primary challenge due to his refusal to back many conservative bills during previous sessions. He narrowly won his primary in2014, voted against a 20-weekabortion ban, opposedschool voucher legislation, and refused to endorselieutenant governorDan Patrick's re-election campaign. He drew two primary challengers, including Mike Canon, whom Seliger had narrowly defeated in 2014 and had the support of conservative groups such asEmpower Texans.[30][31][32] Seliger won the primary, narrowly avoiding a runoff.[33] He faced nominal third-party opposition in the general election and easily won.
Results by seat gains
Results by vote share
2
2
.jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
