2010 Texas Senate election

2010 Texas Senate election

←  2008 November 4, 2010 2012  →
16 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate 16 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party Third party   Party Republican Democratic Libertarian Seats before 19 12 0 Seats won 19 12 0 Seat change Popular vote 1,839,653 591,423 172,017 Percentage 70.65% 22.71% 6.61% Swing 16.98% 17.43% 0.42%
Senate results by district      Republican hold     Democratic hold      No election
President Pro Tempore before election Republican Elected President Pro Tempore Republican

The 2010 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 16 State Senate districts. The winners of this election served in the 82nd Texas Legislature. State senators typically serve four-year terms in the Texas State Senate, but all Senators come up for election in the cycles following each decennial redistricting. As such, all of the seats up for this election were for two-year terms, with senators up for re-election in the following 2012 Texas State Senate elections.

Following the 2008 Texas Senate election, 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.

Summary of race results

Summary of the November 2, 2010 Texas Senate election results

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	16	1,839,653	70.65	19	11	11	19
	Democratic	8	591,423	22.71	12	5	5	12
	Libertarian	8	172,017	6.61	0	0	0	0
	Write-in	1	885	0.03	0	0	0	0
Total			2,603,976	100.00	31			31
Source: [1]

Popular vote Republican   70.65% Democratic   22.71% Libertarian   6.61% Write-in   0.03%

Senate seats won Republican   61.29% Democratic   38.71%

Close races

District	Winner	Margin
District 19	Democratic	7.06%

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Governing [2]	Safe R	November 1, 2010

Summary of results by State Senate district

District	Democratic		Republican		Others		Total		Result
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
District 1	-	-	140,273	100.00%	-	-	140,273	100.00%	Republican hold
District 2	53,566	33.62%	105,779	66.38%	-	-	159,345	100.00%	Republican hold
District 3	-	-	153,906	88.90%	19,211	11.10%	173,117	100.00%	Republican hold
District 5	58,525	28.73%	145,170	71.27%	-	-	203,695	100.00%	Republican hold
District 7	-	-	184,704	86.41%	29,048	13.59%	213,752	100.00%	Republican hold
District 8	-	-	136,369	84.02%	25,935	15.98%	162,304	100.00%	Republican hold
District 12	-	-	148,592	86.15%	23,894	13.85%	172,486	100.00%	Republican hold
District 13	113,155	78.17%	31,596	21.83%	-	-	144,751	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 14	115,949	60.73%	68,100	35.67%	6,884	3.61%	190,933	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 15	77,096	59.28%	52,959	40.72%	-	-	130,055	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 17	-	-	112,595	83.16%	22,802	16.84%	135,397	100.00%	Republican hold
District 18	61,345	29.57%	146,087	70.43%	-	-	207,432	100.00%	Republican hold
District 19	61,327	52.14%	53,024	45.08%	3,269	2.78%	117,620	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 22	-	-	134,231	100.00%	-	-	134,231	100.00%	Republican hold
District 25	-	-	192,965	82.18%	41,857	17.82%	234,822	100.00%	Republican hold
District 29	50,460	60.24%	33,303	39.76%	-	-	83,763	100.00%	Democratic hold
Total	591,423	22.71%	1,839,653	70.65%	172,900	6.64%	2,603,976	100.00%	Source: [1]

Notable races

District 22: In March 2010, after winning the Republican primary for his seat, Senator Kip Averitt announced that he would step down from his seat in the Texas Senate. ^[3] This triggered a special election which took place on May 8, 2010. No candidate won 50% of the vote, so the top two vote winners advanced to a runoff held on June 22, 2010. ^[4] Averitt backed former state Senator David Sibley, but Brian Birdwell won the election. ^[5] As he had won the March primary, Averitt's name was still set to be on the ballot in November, but he withdrew his name shortly after Birdwell's victory. ^[6] As the incumbent Senator, Birdwell's name was placed on the ballot in Averitt's place, and he won the general election unopposed.

Texas's 22nd state senate district special election

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	David Sibley	13,423	44.97%
	Republican	Brian Birdwell	10,900	36.51%
	Democratic	Gayle R. Avant	3,968	13.29%
	Republican	Darren Yancy	1,560	5.23%
Total votes			29,851	100.00%

Texas's 22nd state senate district special election runoff

Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Brian Birdwell	14,218	57.90%
	Republican	David Sibley	10,339	42.10%
Total votes			24,557	100.00%
	Republican hold

References

1. "Office of the Secretary of State Race Summary Report 2010 General Election". elections.sos.state.tx.us. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
2. Jacobson, Louis (November 1, 2010). "Update: 2010 State Legislatures: A Challenging Environment for Democrats". Governing. Archived from the original on December 5, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
3. DEMOCRAT, Greg WebbWEATHERFORD. "Republican Sen. Kip Averitt to resign". Weatherford Democrat. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
4. "Office of the Secretary of State Race Summary Report 2010 May Special Election". elections.sos.state.tx.us. May 8, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
5. "Office of the Secretary of State Race Summary Report Special Runoff Election State Senate District 22". elections.sos.state.tx.us. June 22, 2010. Retrieved December 30, 2021.
6. Hamilton, Reeve (June 23, 2010). "TribBlog: Averitt's Out". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved December 30, 2021.