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2020 Texas Senate election

← 2018 November 3, 2020 2022 →
16 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate 16 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Paul Bettencourt José R. Rodríguez Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat 7th district 29th district Last election 19 seats, 50.66% 12 seats, 47.82% Seats before 19 12 Seats won 18 13 Seat change 1 1 Popular vote 2,660,120 2,226,640 Percentage 53.28% 44.59%
Results by seat gains Results by vote share     Republican hold      Democratic hold      Democratic gain Republican:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      ≥90% Democratic:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%

Elections in Texas
General elections 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Federal government Presidential elections 1848 1852 1856 1860 1872 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1916 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1940 1944 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Presidential primaries Democratic 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 Republican 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 U.S. Senate 1846 1847 1851 1853 1857 1859 1859 sp 1870 1871 1875 1876 1881 1882 1887 1888 1892 sp 1893 1894 1899 1901 1905 1907 1911 1913 1913 sp 1916 1918 1922 1924 1928 1930 1934 1936 1940 1941 sp 1942 1946 1948 1952 1954 1957 sp 1958 1960 1961 sp 1964 1966 1970 1972 1976 1978 1982 1984 1988 1990 1993 sp 1994 1996 2000 2002 2006 2008 2012 2014 2018 2020 2024 2026 U.S. House of Representatives 1846 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1866 1869 1870 1871 1872 1874 1876 1878 1879 6th sp 1880 1882 1884 1886 1887 2nd sp 1888 1890 1892 9th sp 1894 1896 11th sp 1898 1900 1901 6th sp 1902 4th sp 1903 8th sp 1904 1905 8th sp 1906 1908 1910 1912 1913 10th sp 1914 1916 1918 1919 12th sp 1920 1922 13th sp 1924 1926 1928 1930 17th sp 1931 14th sp 1932 1933 7th sp 8th sp 15th sp 1934 1936 1937 10th sp 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 6th sp 1947 9th sp 16th sp 1948 15th sp 1950 18th sp 1951 13th sp 1952 7th sp 1954 1956 1958 1960 1961 20th sp 1962 4th sp 13th sp 1963 10th sp 1964 1966 8th sp 1968 3rd sp 1970 1972 1974 1976 1st sp 22nd sp 1978 1980 1982 1983 6th sp 1984 1985 1st sp 1986 1988 1989 12th sp 18th sp 1990 1991 3rd sp 1992 1994 1996 1997 28th sp 1998 2000 2002 2003 19th sp 2004 2006 22nd 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 27th sp 2020 2021 6th sp 2022 34th sp 2024 18th sp
State government Gubernatorial elections 1845 1847 1849 1851 1853 1855 1857 1859 1861 1863 1866 1866 1869 1873 1876 1878 1880 1882 1884 1886 1888 1890 1892 1894 1896 1898 1900 1902 1904 1906 1908 1910 1912 1914 1916 1918 1920 1922 1924 1926 1928 1930 1932 1934 1936 1938 1940 1942 1944 1946 1948 1950 1952 1954 1956 1958 1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026 Lieutenant gubernatorial elections 1974 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Attorney General elections 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 Comptroller elections 2010 2014 2018 2022 Senate elections 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 House of Representatives elections 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 Constitutional amendments 1972 2005 2007 2021 2023
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Government
v t e

The 2020 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 16 of the 31 state senate districts. The winners of this election served in the 87th Texas Legislature. State senators serve four-year terms in the Texas State Senate. Those elected in 2020 will only be elected for two years, however, as part of the 2-4-4 term system. A statewide map of Texas's state Senate districts can be obtained from the Texas Legislative Council. and individual district maps can be obtained from the U.S. Census.

Following the 2018 state senate elections, Republicans maintained effective control of the Senate with 19 members. To claim control of the chamber from Republicans, the Democrats would have needed to net four Senate seats.

The Democratic Party gained one seat (District 19), leaving the Republicans with an 18 to 13 majority in the chamber. This broke Republican's effective supermajority in the chamber, as legislation typically requires 19 votes, three fifths, to pass the chamber. At the urging of lieutenant governor Dan Patrick, the senate voted to reduce this threshold to 18, just as he had done to reduce the threshold from 21 to 19 during the 2015 session.

Retirements

One incumbent did not run for re-election in 2020:

Democrats

1. District 29: José R. Rodríguez: Retiring

Incumbents defeated

In the general election

Republicans

1. District 19: Pete Flores lost to Roland Gutierrez.

Predictions

Despite the state's competitive elections for President and House of Representatives, analysts considered the Texas Senate extremely unlikely to flip control due to the small number of competitive seats up for election in 2020.

Results summary

Summary of the November 3, 2020 Texas Senate election results

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	14	2,660,120	53.28	19	9	8	18	1
	Democratic	15	2,226,640	44.59	12	7	8	13	1
	Libertarian	4	57,147	1.14	0	0	0	0
	Green	1	49,202	0.99	0	0	0	0
Total			4,993,109	100.00	31	16	16	31
Source: Texas Elections Results

Close races

Summary of results by State Senate District

Detailed results by State Senate District

District 1

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 4

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 6

Democratic primary

General election

District 11

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 12

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 13

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

District 18

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 19

2020 Texas's 19th senate district election

← 2018 (special) November 3, 2020 2022 →

Nominee Roland Gutierrez Pete Flores Party Democratic Republican Popular vote 158,726 148,213 Percentage 49.85% 46.55%

County results Gutierrez:      50–60%      60–70% Flores:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%

Texas Senator before election Pete Flores Republican Party Elected Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez Democratic Party

Incumbent Republican Pete Flores, who was elected in an upset in a 2018 special election, ran for re-election. He was defeated by Democratic state representative Roland Gutierrez.

Republican primary

Democratic primary

Democratic primary runoff

General election

District 20

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

District 21

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

District 22

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 24

Republican primary

Democratic primary

General election

District 26

Democratic primary

General election

District 27

Democratic primary

Democratic primary runoff

Republican primary

General election

District 28

Republican primary

General election

District 29

Democratic primary

Republican primary

General election

Special elections

District 14

The seat for District 14 became vacant on April 30, 2020, after the resignation of Kirk Watson. A special election was originally called for July 14, 2020. However, Eddie Rodriguez chose not to contest the resulting runoff, thus the scheduled runoff was canceled and Sarah Eckhardt was deemed elected.

District 30

A special election for Texas State Senate District 30 has been called for September 29, 2020. The candidate filing deadline was August 28, 2020. The seat became vacant after the resignation of Pat Fallon on August 23, 2020.

Runoff

See also

• 2020 Texas elections

References

1. "State Senate Districts, 86th Legislature, 2019-2020" (PDF). Texas Legislative Council. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 3, 2019. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
2. "Texas - State Legislative District Maps (Upper Chamber) - Geography". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on October 12, 2015. Retrieved April 5, 2022.
3. Svitek, Patrick (December 2, 2020). "On Election Day, Republicans lost a critical advantage in the state Senate. Will Dan Patrick push to change the rules?". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
4. Samuels, Alex (January 14, 2021). "Texas Senate changes rules so Republicans can still bring bills to floor without Democratic support". The Texas Tribune. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
5. "October Overview: Handicapping the 2020 State Legislature Races". The Cook Political Report. Retrieved November 1, 2020.
6. Nuttycombe, Chaz (May 7, 2020). "The State of the States: The Legislatures". University of Virginia Center for Politics.
7. "Texas State Senate elections, 2020". Ballotpedia. Retrieved July 14, 2020.
8. "Election Night Results". Texas Secretary of State. Retrieved August 31, 2021.
9. "District 4 Election Results".
10. Rodriguez, Jakob; Marquez, RJ (October 30, 2020). "Election results 2020: Roland Gutierrez elected to Texas State Senate District 19 seat". KSAT. Retrieved June 6, 2024.
11. "State Sen. Kirk Watson to retire from Texas Senate". Texas Tribune. February 18, 2020. Retrieved June 17, 2020.

External links

• Elections Division at the Texas Secretary of State official website
• Texas Election Results
• Texas at Ballotpedia
• University of Texas Libraries, "Voting and Elections", Research Guides
• "League of Women Voters of Texas". (State affiliate of the U.S. League of Women Voters)
• Texas 2019 & 2020 Elections, OpenSecrets

• 2020 Texas elections
• 2020 state legislature elections in the United States
• Texas Senate elections