2004 Texas Senate election

2004 Texas Senate election
15 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate; 16 seats needed for a majority
	Senate results by district; Republican hold Democratic hold; No election
President Pro Tempore before election; ; Republican	Elected President Pro Tempore ; ; Republican

The 2004 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 15 State Senate districts. All of the seats up for this election were for two-year terms, with senators up for re-election in the 2008 elections. The winners of this election served in the 79th Texas Legislature.

Following the 2002 elections, the Republicans maintained effective control of the Senate with nineteen members to the Democrats' twelve.

To claim control of the chamber from Republicans, the Democrats needed to gain four seats. In the end, no seats changed hands.

Background

The Republican Party had held the State Senate since the 1996 elections. In 2002, Republicans gained control of the Texas House of Representatives, giving them unified control of the state's government.^[1] This led to the 2003 Texas redistricting, where Republicans redrew the state's congressional districts which had been implemented by federal courts for the 2002 elections.^[2] During that session, eleven members of the Texas Senate left the state to break quorum in an attempt to prevent the plan from passing.^[3] This strategy eventually failed due to the defection of Senator John Whitmire of Houston.^[4]

Summary of race results

Summary of the November 2, 2004 Texas Senate election results
Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats

Party		Candidates	No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	10	1,589,684	63.50	19	9	9	19
	Democratic	9	901,490	36.01	12	6	6	12
	Libertarian	2	11,903	0.48	0	0	0	0
	Write-in	1	160	0.01	0	0	0	0
Total			2,503,243	100.00	31	15	15	31
Source:^[5]

Popular vote

Republican			63.50%
Democratic			36.01%
Libertarian			0.48%
Write-in			0.01%

Senate seats won

Republican			60.00%
Democratic			40.00%

Summary of results by State Senate district


District	Democratic		Republican		Others		Total		Result

	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
District 4	-	-	176,464	100.00%	-	-	176,464	100.00%	Republican hold
District 6	75,318	91.75%	-	-	6,774	8.25%	82,092	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 9	-	-	143,501	100.00%	-	-	143,501	100.00%	Republican hold
District 10	107,853	40.75%	156,831	59.25%	-	-	264,684	100.00%	Republican hold
District 11	-	-	177,554	100.00%	-	-	177,554	100.00%	Republican hold
District 16	-	-	142,542	100.00%	-	-	142,542	100.00%	Republican hold
District 20	116,723	100.00%	-	-	-	-	116,723	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 21	127,573	100.00%	-	-	-	-	127,573	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 23	150,244	100.00%	-	-	-	-	150,244	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 24	-	-	189,778	100.00%	-	-	189,778	100.00%	Republican hold
District 26	105,625	57.10%	74,070	40.04%	5,295	2.86%	184,990	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 27	89,984	100.00%	-	-	-	-	89,984	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 28	176,588	100.00%	-	-	-	-	176,588	100.00%	Republican hold
District 30	81,614	30.95%	182,057	69.05%	-	-	263,671	100.00%	Republican hold
District 31	46,556	21.47%	170,299	78.53%	-	-	216,855	100.00%	Republican hold
Total	901,490	36.01%	1,589,684	63.50%	12,069	0.48%	2,503,243	100.00%	Source:^[6]