State Legislative Elections

[Sam Spade]

Looks like this in the Texas House and Senate:  Overall, a decent night for the Dems.

* - means open seat

Senate:
R20 D11 (R+1, gained TXS-18*)

House:
R82, D68 (D+3, gained TXH-47*, TXH-107, TX-134)

A few notes:
TX-47 is SW Travis County and was expected to go Dem
The Texas Dems had already gained TXH-48 earlier due to resignation.
TXH-107 is an inner (very inner) Dallas suburb within the city, a seat which is most likely moving left at all phases of politics.
TXH-134 is an inner Houston ritzy area seat that is probably moving Dem like TXH-107.

The closest holds were these:
TXH-11:  A rural Democratic East Texas seat that was barely held onto again.  The House member got 51%
TXH-17:  Rural area in-between Austin and Houston (a lot of TX-10 is here).  Incumbent Dem barely survived by 1% of the vote probably because of Bastrop County.
TXH-33:  Solomon Ortiz Jr. (D) won 52-48 to take this open House seat formerly held by Vilma Luna (D).  Probably looking to go the way of his father.  Nueces County (Corpus Christi) mostly.
TXH-35:  Another West Texas rural Hispanic Dem Rep. survives with 52%.
TXH-52:  Mike Krusee (R) got 50% and survived a challenge in this Williamson County (Austin suburb) race.
TXH-96:  Bill Zedler (R) won with about 52% in the Fort Worth exurban HD.
TXH-102:  Another inner-city Dallas GOP member who survived (instead of losing), Tony Goolsby.  His HD is still mostly within Dallas city limits but is much more suburban than TX-107.
TX-106:  Mainly Grand Prairie (Dallas suburb) HD that Kirk Englund (R) held onto by about 1% margin.
TX-118:  Carlos Uresti's (D) old House HD (San Antonio outskirts, with some South Side precincts) that the Democrat held onto with 48%.  Libertarian got 7%


And finally in a shocker that Al will like, in TXH-85, Democrat Joe Heflin held onto Pete Laney's old House seat out in far west Texas by a margin.  Heflin is a trial lawyer and more liberal than Laney and will probably have trouble holding onto this seat in the future, but it was a most interesting win.

[Sam Spade]

Oddity in state legislative elections this year: 

It looks like the only legislative chamber in the country to flip from Dem to GOP will be the Montana House, where it was tied at 50-50 before and will now be 50R-49D-1C, as the first Constitution party member ever won a state House seat.

Also interesting is that the state Senate there appears to have moved from 27D-23R to 25D-25D.

[Sam Spade]

Most of those rural legislators are quite conservative Democrats, but if you want that, go right on ahead.