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2004 Texas Senate election

2004 Texas Senate election

← 2002 November 2, 2004 2006 →
15 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate 16 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Rep Dem Party Republican Democratic Seats before 19 12 Seats won 19 12 Seat change Popular vote 1,589,684 901,490 Percentage 63.50% 36.01%
Senate results by district      Republican hold      Democratic hold      No election
President Pro Tempore before election Republican Elected President Pro Tempore Republican

The 2004 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 15 State Senate districts. All of the seats up for this election were for two-year terms, with senators up for re-election in the 2008 elections. The winners of this election served in the 79th Texas Legislature.

Following the 2002 elections, 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.

The Republican Party had held the State Senate since the 1996 elections. In 2002, Republicans gained control of the Texas House of Representatives, giving them unified control of the state's government.^[1] This led to the 2003 Texas redistricting, where Republicans redrew the state's congressional districts which had been implemented by federal courts for the 2002 elections.^[2] During that session, eleven members of the Texas Senate left the state to break quorum in an attempt to prevent the plan from passing.^[3] This strategy eventually failed due to the defection of Senator John Whitmire of Houston.^[4]

Summary of the November 2, 2004 Texas Senate election results

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	10	1,589,684	63.50	19	9	9	19
	Democratic	9	901,490	36.01	12	6	6	12
	Libertarian	2	11,903	6.61	0	0	0	0
	Write-in	1	160	0.01	0	0	0	0
Total			2,503,243	100.00	31	15	15	31
Source:[5]