2010 Texas House of Representatives election


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.

Background

Following the 2008 elections, the Democrats nearly gained control of the House with 74 members to the Republicans' 76. Republicans saw the freshmen Democratic members elected in 2008 as vulnerable, as many of them had narrowly won and had been the first Democrats elected to those districts in decades. Democrats also had a large number of incumbents in districts that voted heavily Republican on the national level. In November 2009, Democrat Chuck Hopson announced he had switched his party affiliation to Republican, increasing the size of the Republican caucus to 77. Hopson's district was the most Republican district in the state that had elected a Democrat in 2008. Democrats needed to gain three seats from the Republicans in order to win the majority.

Campaign

Republicans very heavily targeted White Democrats representing rural districts that voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. These conservative Democrats attempted to distance themselves from the national Democratic Party as pundits increasingly predicted a Republican wave election in opposition to the policies of President Barack Obama.

Predictions

Most analysts expected Republicans to easily maintain control of the Texas House, expanding their narrow majority from the 2008 election. Despite this, many also saw the potentially strong performance by Democrat Bill White in the concurrent gubernatorial election as a force to mitigate the severity of Democratic losses.
SourceRankingAs of
GoverningNov. 1, 2010

Results

In the end, the Republicans routed the Democrats in the general election, erasing all of the gains they had made in 2006 and 2008, as well as defeating almost every Democrat representing a rural, Republican-leaning district. Democrats lost 22 seats in the midst of a nationwide Republican wave election. On December 14, 2010, Democrat Allan Ritter announced he would be changing his party affiliation to Republican. On the same day, Democrat Aaron Peña announced he would be switching to the Republican Party as well, claiming that the Democratic Party no longer aligned with his conservative values. This left the party balance at 101 Republicans and 49 Democrats at the start of the Eighty-second Texas Legislature when it convened on January 11, 2011.

Close races

Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%:

Notable races

District 11: Representative Chuck Hopson was re-elected as a Democrat in 2008 with 49.29% of the vote. On November 6, 2009, he announced that he would switch parties and seek re-election as a Republican. He would later win re-election in 2010 with 75.82% of the vote.