Texas 2020 Election Results

Texas held its general election on November 3, 2020, deciding 166 legislative seats and the office of Railroad Commissioner. No chamber changed party control.

Highlights

• Republicans fought off a well-financed attempt by Democrats to flip the Texas House, keeping full control of the Legislature that would draw the post-2020-census maps; that redistricting stake drew out-of-state millions into House races. Losing one Senate seat, though, cost Republicans the votes to bring bills to the floor without Democratic help.
• Democrats, coming off a dozen House pickups in 2018, needed nine seats for a majority and finished with no net gain, trading one seat each way. Ann Johnson (D) beat Rep. Sarah Davis (R), who had held the Houston-area seat for 10 years, by nearly 5,000 votes in House District 134. In Katy's House District 132, former Rep. Mike Schofield (R) ousted Rep. Gina Calanni (D), who had unseated him in 2018, by about 4 points.
• In the Senate, Roland Gutierrez (D) unseated Sen. Pete Flores (R) by about 3 points in Senate District 19, a predominantly Hispanic district Flores had won in a 2018 special election upset. That left Republicans one short of the 19 votes the three-fifths rule required to bring legislation to the floor, so in January 2021 the Senate lowered the threshold to 18 on a party-line vote.
• Beyond the flips, 6 House races finished inside two points, and the incumbent held on in every one:
  • Republicans: Angie Chen Button (R) won House District 112 in Dallas County by about 220 votes; Matt Shaheen (R) kept House District 66 in Collin County by fewer than 850 votes; and Morgan Meyer (R) held off a tight challenge from Joanna Cattanach (D) by under 2 points in Dallas's House District 108.
  • Democrats: Jon Rosenthal (D) held House District 135 by about 300 votes, while Vikki Goodwin (D) in House District 47 and Erin Zwiener (D) in House District 45 each won by about 1 point.
• Republicans kept their seat on the Railroad Commission, which regulates the state's oil and gas industry: Jim Wright (R), who had defeated incumbent Ryan Sitton in the March primary, beat Chrysta Castañeda (D) by about 9 points. Castañeda's backers had billed the contest as "the biggest environmental race in the country," and she drew a late $2.6 million donation from Michael Bloomberg.
• In 49 legislative races, only one candidate appeared on the ballot.

Legislature

• House (150 seats): 67 D, 83 R before the election, 67 D, 83 R after; control stayed with Republicans.
• Senate (31 seats): 12 D, 19 R before the election, 13 D, 18 R after; control stayed with Republicans.

Statewide races

Legislative races