1998 Texas Senate election

The 1998 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 16 State Senate districts. All of the seats up for this election were for four-year terms, with senators up for re-election in the 2002 elections. The winners of this election served in the 76th Texas Legislature.

Background

The 1996 elections had initially left the Senate with a 15–15 tie between the Republicans and the Democrats, with one outstanding special election runoff in the West Texas-based 28th district. Republicans won the December runoff, winning a majority of seats and breaking over 100 years of continuous Democratic control of the chamber.

Democratic Senator Jim Turner resigned his seat after winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1996 elections. A special election was held for his seat in January 1997, which Republican Steve Ogden won, flipping the district and expanding the Republicans' newfound majority.

Despite Republican governor George W. Bush's landslide re-election, his party only won a narrow 16–15 majority in the Senate. Democrats gained one seat in the chamber, with David Bernsen's victory in Beaumont-based 4th district. Bernsen defeated incumbent Republican Michael Galloway, who himself had flipped the seat in an upset victory in 1994.