2012 elections review: Several incumbents toppled in Texas primaries

May 30, 2012

By Ballotpedia's Congressional and State legislative teams

Besides picking presidential nominations, Texas voters selected primary winners in congressional and state legislative primaries. Here's a recap of what happened.

Contested Primaries in Texas -- May 29, 2012
	U.S. House (36 seats)	State Legislature (181 seats)
Total Democratic Contested Primaries	16 (44.44%)	20 (11%)
Total Republican Contested Primaries	24 (66.67%)	68 (37.6%)

Congress

U.S. Senate

United States Senate elections in Texas, 2012

In the race for the open U.S. Senate seat, both the Democratic and Republican primaries must be decided by a primary runoff election. In the Democratic primary Paul Sadler and Grady Yarbrough will advance to the runoff. Ted Cruz and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst will advance to the Republican primary runoff election.

U.S. House

United States House of Representatives elections in Texas, 2012

Texas' congressional races saw few surprises, as most incumbents won their primary battles handily. However, one incumbent did lose his primary battle in the U.S. House.

Incumbent Silvestre Reyes was defeated by Beto O'Rourke in District 16. O'Rourke just barely acquired the 50% of the vote required to avoid a primary runoff, while incumbent Reyes received roughly 44% of votes. Reyes was one of two Democratic incumbents who had been targeted by the Super PAC Campaign for Primary Accountability. The other was District 30 incumbent Eddie Bernice Johnson, who easily won her primary.

Primary runoffs will be needed to decide the nominee in many of the primaries contests featuring more than two candidates. Eleven primary races have resulted in the need for a runoff election, 6 Democratic and 5 Republican races.

Members of the U.S. House from Texas -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	9	12
	Republican Party	23	24
Total		32	36

State legislature

Six Senate incumbents faced a primary challenge. All Six successfully dispatched their primary opponent.

In the House, 45 incumbents faced a primary challenge. Seven incumbents were defeated in Tuesday's primary.

• District 6: Republican Matt Schaefer defeated Leo Berman.
• District 9: Incumbent Chris Paddie (R) defeated Wayne Christian.
• District 15: Republican Steve Toth defeated Rob Eissler .
• District 19: Incumbent James White (R) defeated Mike Hamilton.
• District 57: Republican Trent Ashby defeated Marva Beck.
• District 93: Republican Matt Krause defeated Barbara Nash.
• District 98: Republican Giovanni Capriglione defeated Vicki Truitt.

In addition, many of the races in which there were more than two candidates will result in a July 31 primary runoff election:

Senate

District 25: Incumbent Jeff Wentworth and Donna Campbell

House

District 11: Incumbent Chuck Hopson and Travis Clardy
District 12: Tucker Anderson and Kyle J. Kacal
District 23: Wayne Faircloth and W.M. Wallace
District 24: Greg Bonnen and Ryan Sitton
District 26: Jacquie Chaumette and Rick Miller
District 40: Agustin Hernandez, Jr. and Terry Canales
District 43: Incumbent J.M. Lozano and Bill T. Willson, II
District 59: Incumbent Sid Miller and J.D. Sheffield
District 67: Jon Cole and Jeff Leach
District 68: Trent McKnight and Drew Springer
District 89: Incumbent Jim Landtroop and Ken King
District 91: Stephanie Klick and Ken Sapp
District 95: Nicole Collier and Dulani Masimini
District 114: Bill Keffer and Jason Villalba
District 115: Steve Nguyen and Bennett Ratliff
District 117: Philip Cortez and Tina Torres
District 137: Joseph Carlos Madden and Gene Wu

Texas State Senate
Party		As of November 5, 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	12	12
	Republican Party	19	19
Total		31	31

Texas House of Representatives
Party		As of November 5, 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	48	55
	Republican Party	100	95
	Vacancy	2	0
Total		150	150

See also

• United States Senate elections in Texas, 2012
• United States House of Representatives elections in Texas, 2012
• Texas State Senate elections, 2012
• Texas House of Representatives elections, 2012