2002 Texas House of Representatives election


The 2002 Texas House of Representatives elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state representatives in all 150 State House of Representatives districts. The winners of this election served in the 78th Texas Legislature, with seats apportioned according to the 2000 United States census. State representatives serve for two-year terms. Republicans gained control of the House with 88 seats to the Democrats' 62, giving them a governmental trifecta for the first time since Reconstruction.

Background

Democrats had held control of the Texas House of Representatives since Reconstruction despite Republicans winning the governorship in 1994 and the Texas Senate in 1996. In the 2000 elections, Democrats had heavily emphasized the need to maintain control of the chamber to combat a potential Republican gerrymander after the next census. Their heavy investments in key races allowed them to maintain control of the chamber despite governor George W. Bush's victory in the state in the concurrent presidential election.

Redistricting

Following the release of the 2000 census results, the divided Texas Legislature attempted to undergo its decennial redistricting responsibility, but it failed. Many Republicans in the legislature had felt no pressure to redistrict their own lines as control would fall to the Legislative Redistricting Board, which was controlled by Republicans, if they failed to do so. The districts that the board drew were seen as highly favorable to Republicans. Challenges by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Department of Justice altered the board's state House districts, while keeping the state Senate map intact. The Board had attempted to draw Democratic Speaker Pete Laney out of his west Texas district, but this had the ripple effect of reducing the Hispanic population in district 74 along the Texas–Mexico border. The Board agreed to revert this change, allowing the map to pass preclearance.
House districts follow the "county line rule," effectively granting individual counties delegations of state house seats based on their population. The census found that Texas had a population of 20,851,820 in 2000, giving each district an "ideal population" of 139,006 people. In 1990, the "ideal population for a district" was 113,006 people. Counties with at least this number of people must fully contain at least one state house district. Counties with sufficient population for two or more districts must be divided into that number of districts. Should a county have sufficient population for one or more district plus a fraction of another, one district from another county may extend into it to represent the remaining population. District delegations for counties with at least one district changed as follows following the 2000 Census:
County1990 pop.SeatsPartial2000 pop.SeatsPartial+/– W+/– P
Bell County191,0731Yes238,0001Yes
Bexar County1,185,39411No1,393,03510No1
Brazoria County191,7071Yes241,8051Yes
Brazos County121,8621Yes152,4361Yes
Cameron County260,1202Yes334,8842Yes
Collin County264,0362Yes491,2723Yes1
Dallas County1,852,69116No2,216,80816No
Denton County273,6442Yes433,0653No1
Ector County118,9341Yes121,1240Yes1
El Paso County591,6105No679,5685No
Fort Bend County225,4212No354,2862Yes
Galveston County217,3962No250,1781Yes1
Harris County2,818,10125No3,401,13925No
Hidalgo County383,5453Yes569,0994No1
Jefferson County239,3892Yes251,9681Yes1
Lubbock County222,6362No242,6441Yes1
McLennan County189,1231Yes213,5251Yes
Montgomery County182,2011Yes293,7792Yes1
Nueces County291,1452Yes313,5122Yes
Smith County151,3091Yes174,8611Yes
Tarrant County1,170,10310No1,449,29010No
Taylor County119,6551Yes126,6060Yes1
Travis County576,4075No811,7766No1
Webb County133,2391Yes193,1241Yes
Wichita County122,3781Yes131,6950Yes1
Williamson County139,5511Yes250,4661Yes

As a result of these changes, the following districts drastically moved:
  1. District 20 moved from East Texas to Williamson County.
  2. District 46 moved from Hays County to Travis County.
  3. District 70 moved from West Texas to Collin County.
  4. District 80 moved from the Permian Basin to South Texas.
  5. District 89 moved from Tarrant County to Collin County.
  6. District 99 moved from Dallas County to Tarrant County.
  7. District 115 moved from Bexar County to Dallas County.

Campaign

Seeking a more favorable redistricting plan to boost his political standing, U.S. House majority leader Tom DeLay organized the Texans for a Republican Majority PAC with the express purpose of ensuring the election of Tom Craddick as Speaker of the Texas House. This not only involved electing a Republican majority, but also electing enough Republicans such that not enough could defect to continue to support Democrat Pete Laney's speakership. TRMPAC intervened in several Republican primaries to support candidates it saw as more conservative and more supportive of Craddick. This led to the defeat of multiple moderate Republicans as well as the victory of conservative incumbents against more moderate challengers. TRMPAC raised over $1 million during the 2002 cycle from a variety of corporate sources. About half of this money was laundered from corporate treasuries. Later, these actions would lead to the indictment of DeLay and several TRMPAC officials.
The Democratic Party sought to maintain its control of the House by building a strong, diverse statewide ticket, including Tony Sanchez for governor and Ron Kirk for U.S. Senator. They saw the election as an opportunity to reverse the state's Republican trend without the popular George W. Bush on the ballot.

Results

Republicans flipped twenty one Democratic-held seats, while Democrats flipped five Republican-held seats. Several of these flips came through reapportionment and the movement of districts across the state. With a net gain of sixteen seats, Republicans gained control of the House, giving them a governmental trifecta for the first time since Reconstruction.