2006 Texas Legislature election may refer to:
The Texas Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. It is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The state legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin. It is a powerful arm of the Texas government not only because of its power of the purse to control and direct the activities of state government and the strong constitutional connections between it and the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, but also due to Texas's plural executive.
The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, they compose the state legislature of the state of Texas.
Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions of several different types passed, banning legal recognition of same-sex unions in U.S. state constitutions, referred to by proponents as "defense of marriage amendments" or "marriage protection amendments." These state amendments are different from the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in every U.S. state, and Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, more commonly known as DOMA, which allowed the states not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The amendments define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevent civil unions or same-sex marriages from being legalized, though some of the amendments bar only the latter. The Obergefell decision in June 2015 invalidated these state constitutional amendments insofar as they prevented same-sex couples from marrying, even though the actual text of these amendments remain written into the state constitutions.
For about a hundred years, from after Reconstruction until the 1990s, the Democratic Party dominated Texas politics, making it part of the Solid South. In a reversal of alignments, since the late 1960s, the Republican Party has grown more prominent. By the 1990s, it became the state's dominant political party and remains so to this day, as Democrats have not won a statewide race since Bob Bullock won the 1994 Lieutenant gubernatorial election.
John Harris Whitmire is an American attorney and politician who has served as the 63rd mayor of Houston, the most populous city in Texas, since 2024. A member of the Democratic Party, Whitmire was previously a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1973 until 1983, and the Texas State Senate from 1983 to 2023. In the state senate, he represented District 15, which included much of northern Houston.
The 2003 Texas redistricting was a controversial intercensus state plan that defined new congressional districts. In the 2004 elections, this redistricting supported the Republicans taking a majority of Texas's federal House seats for the first time since Reconstruction. Democrats in both houses of the Texas Legislature staged walkouts, unsuccessfully trying to prevent the changes. Opponents challenged the plan in three suits, combined when the case went to the United States Supreme Court in League of United Latin American Citizens v. Perry (2006).
Texas's 21st congressional district of the United States House of Representatives serves the area north of San Antonio and a significant portion of Austin in the state of Texas. Towns entirely or partially in this district include Boerne, Fredericksburg, Ingram, Kerrville, Kyle, New Braunfels, and San Marcos. The current Representative from the 21st district is Chip Roy.
Thomas Russell Craddick is a Republican member of the Texas House of Representatives representing the 82nd district. Craddick was Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives from January 2003 to January 2009. He was the first Republican to serve as Speaker since Reconstruction.
John Joseph Carona is a former Republican member of the Texas Senate from District 16 in Dallas County, Texas, serving as President pro tempore during the 80th legislature. Previously, Carona served as a member of the Texas House of Representatives.
The 79th Texas Legislature met from 11 January to 30 May 2005 in regular session, and in consecutive called sessions from 21 June to 20 July and 21 July to 19 August 2005. It met again in 2006 from 17 April to 16 May. Most of the members of the House of Representatives and 15 members of the Senate were elected in the 2004 general election; the other House members were elected in special elections held in 2006.
The 80th Texas Legislature met in regular session beginning 9 January 2007. All members of the House of Representatives and 16 members of the Senate were up for election on 7 November 2006 in the general election.
The 2006 Texas General Election was held on Tuesday, 7 November 2006, in the U.S. state of Texas. Voters statewide elected the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office, Commissioner of Agriculture, and one Railroad Commissioner. Statewide judicial offices up for election were the chief justice and four justices of the Texas Supreme Court, and the presiding judge and two judges of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Adrian Michael Smith is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Nebraska's 3rd congressional district since 2007. A member of the Republican Party, he represented the 48th district in the Nebraska Legislature from 1999 to 2007. Smith is the dean of Nebraska's congressional delegation.
The government of Texas operates under the Constitution of Texas and consists of a unitary democratic state government operating under a presidential system that uses the Dillon Rule, as well as governments at the county and municipal levels.
Frank Lloyd Madla Jr., was for thirty-three years a Democratic member of both the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas State Senate from the south side of San Antonio. Madla died in a house fire in the early morning hours on the Friday after Thanksgiving Day in 2006.
Carlos "Charlie" Uresti is an American attorney and Democratic politician from San Antonio, Texas. From November 2006 until his resignation in June 2018, he served as a member of the Texas State Senate representing Senate District 19, one of the largest geographical senatorial districts in the Texas Senate, covering a third of the Texas-Mexico border. Prior to his election to the Texas State Senate, he represented the 118th district in the Texas House of Representatives from January 1997 until November 2006.
Charles Brandon Creighton is an American attorney and politician from Conroe, Texas, who is a Republican member of the Texas Senate from District 4, and a former member of the Texas House of Representatives from District 16.
The 2012 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in all 31 State Senate districts. The winners of this election served in the 83rd Texas Legislature, with seats apportioned among the 2010 United States census.
The 2010 Texas House of Representatives elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in all 150 State House of Representatives districts. The winners of this election served in the 82nd Texas Legislature. State representatives serve for two-year terms.