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In Short

Where Control of the Next Texas Legislature Will Be Decided​

Texas 2020
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This article in The Texas Tribune.

In 31 of the state’s 150 Texas House districts, the top candidates for the Republicans and Democrats finished fewer than 10 percentage points apart in last year’s general election.

Those results provide a rough guide to the political battlefield in Texas in 2020: 18 of those seats are now held by Republicans and 13 are held by Democrats. A tighter description of competitiveness — districts where the parties’ top candidates finished fewer than 5 percentage points apart — narrows the list to 13 House districts, including seven now held by Republicans and six now held by Democrats.

Statewide, the average Republican candidate on the 2018 ballot outdid the average Democrat by 7.3 percentage points, according to an analysis of district-by-district election results compiled by the .

The partisan split in the House is narrow enough to give partisans on both sides plenty to scheme about. Republicans hold 83 seats. Democrats hold 65, with special election runoffs in Democratic districts next month to decide the remaining two spots.

That narrow list of potentially close districts includes Republican state Reps. of Sugar Land, of Arlington, and of Plano, of Houston, of Dallas and of Richardson. The Democrats on the list are all freshmen: State Reps. of Katy, of Carrollton, of Houston, of Austin, of Dallas and of Driftwood.

Ten Republicans are in districts where their party’s statewide candidates won by more than 5 percentage points but fewer than 10, including of Arlington, of Pearland, and of Fort Worth, of Richmond, of Spring, of Bedford, of San Antonio, of Denton and of Killeen.

Seven Democrats find themselves in the same situation: of Round Rock, of Garland, of Robstown, of Rio Grande City, of Carrollton, of Austin and of Richardson.

One Democrat — Calanni — represents a district where Republicans, on average, won those statewide elections. Two Republicans are in districts where Democrats prevailed at the top — Bohac and of Houston.

But no House Democrat has a district where beat Beto O’Rourke. A number of Republicans, however, represent districts where Cruz lost: Allison, Stucky, Miller, Leach, Shaheen, Bohac, Button, Meyer and Davis.

Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in six House districts where Democrats will be defending their seats: Zweiner, Calanni, Beckley, Rosenthal, Talarico and Goodwin. But Clinton won in these Republicans’ districts: Bohac, Button, Meyer and Davis.

The mix in the Texas Senate doesn’t appear to be in any kind of unusual trouble; only one of the seats that will be on the 2020 ballot — SD-19, where Republican scored a political upset last year and won in a district that typically favors Democrats. In the other 15 Senate districts on the 2020 ballot, the eight Republican and seven Democratic incumbents would be seeking re-election in districts dominated by their own parties.

It’s a testament to the partisan strength of the Senate’s redistricting maps. In Flores’ case, Cruz lost by more than 14 percentage points. In 2016, Trump lost by more than 11 points. And the average statewide Democrat beat the average Republican there by more than 10 percentage points last year.

That seat will be a hot spot for both parties; the rest could see primary fights but are less likely to flip in the general election unless the candidates make big mistakes.

On paper, that’s not enough to rock the Senate in 2020, either way. But with up to a fifth of the House seats in play, both parties have room for hope and terror. And with redistricting coming in the 2021 session, the partisans have something to fight over.

More ¹ú²úÊÓÆµ the Authors

Ross Ramsey
Where Control of the Next Texas Legislature Will Be Decided​