United States House of Representatives elections in Texas, 2008
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
The 2008 elections for the Texas delegation of the United States House of Representatives will be held on November 4, 2008. All 32 congressional seats that make up the state's delegation will be contested. Since Representatives are elected for two-year terms, those elected will serve in the 111th United States Congress from January 4, 2009 until January 3, 2011.
The 2008 Presidential election, 2008 Senate election (for John Cornyn's seat), and 2008 Texas Legislature elections will occur on the same date, as well as many local elections and ballot initiatives.
[edit] Current Delegation Facts
The current delegation comprises 19 Republicans and 13 Democrats.
- Women: The delegation comprises three women: two Democrats and one Republican.
- Ethnic minorities: Six Hispanics and three African-Americans, all Democrats, are part of the delegation.
- Regional breakdown:
- Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex: Nine representatives (8 Republicans and 1 Democrat). Districts 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 24, 26, 30, 32.
- Greater Houston: Nine representatives (5 Republicans, 4 Democrats), eight of whom actually reside in that area; the ninth, Michael McCaul is from the Austin area.
- South Texas: Three representatives, all Hispanic Democrats, are from the Rio Grande Valley region, while three (2 Democrats, 1 Republican) are from the San Antonio area.
- Central and east Texas: These regions have several districts overlapping these regions. Three Republicans and one Democrat represent portions of the Austin area, while Democrat (Chet Edwards) represents a district that includes the Waco and Bryan-College Station areas, and Republican (Louie Gohmert) holds the lone East Texas district.
- West Texas and Texas Panhandle: Three Republicans and one Democrat make up this delegation. The Democrat, Silvestre Reyes, represents much of El Paso.
- Age: The average age of the Texas delegation is 61, with the oldest being Republican Ralph Hall (age 85 in 2008) and the youngest being Michael McCaul (age 46), a Republican. In 2008, five (including Hall) will be over the age of 70, 13 representatives will be in their 60s, and the remainder (with the exception of McCaul) will be in their 50s.
- Seniority: 17 representatives will have served at least six terms by the end of the 110th Congress, and five will have served at least ten terms, the most being Ralph Hall (14 terms). Republican Ron Paul and Democrats Nick Lampson and Ciro Rodriguez have served nonconsecutive tenures. One representative, Silvestre Reyes, is a committee chair (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence).
[edit] Congressional Districts
[edit] District 1
Sophomore Republican Louie Gohmert of Tyler was elected in 2004 following a controversial redistricting in 2003 by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay that moved the district of incumbent Democrat Max Sandlin into a strongly Republican constituency. In fact, Sandlin was defeated by a 24-point margin in 2004, and Gohmert won in 2006 with 68% of the vote. The district is a purely East Texas one stretching from the Tyler and Longview-Marshall areas in the north to the Lufkin-Nacogdoches area due south. Gohmert was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 2
Republican Ted Poe of Humble was one of four Republicans who defeated a Democratic challenger (Nick Lampson, now representing District 22) in the 2004 elections. Poe won 56% of the vote in 2004 and 66% in 2006, making him one of only a handful of Republicans who gained from the previous election (In 2006, Democrats, who won control of the House from Republicans, generally improved on their 2004 margins). The district stretches from the northern Harris County and Houston suburbs of Spring and Kingwood to southern Liberty County and much of the Golden Triangle region. Poe was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 3
Longtime Republican Sam Johnson of Plano will be 78 in 2008 and could possibly retire, however he did win the Republican nomination. Johnson represents several northern and northeastern suburbs of Dallas, including southwestern Collin County (including Plano and McKinney) and northeastern Dallas County including large portions of Garland and Richardson, as well as some northern portions of Dallas itself. The district is heavily Caucasian, upper-middle class, and Republican, with incomes averaging around the $75,000 range. This seat is expected to remain Republican even if Johnson retires. Tom Daley won the Democratic nomination in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 4
Ralph Hall of Rockwall, the oldest living member of the House of Representatives (will be 85 in 2008), has represented this Northeast Texas district which encompasses the Ark-La-Tex, the Rockwall County suburbs of Dallas, and the Sherman-Denison area since 1980. He was first elected as an “old-time” conservative Democrat before becoming a Republican in 2004. Hall won the 2008 Primary, defeating Foreign Relations expert Joshua Kowert, businessman and NASCAR team owner Gene Christensen and former Frisco mayor Kathy Seei. 2006 Democratic challenger Glenn Melancon is the Democratic nominee.
[edit] District 5
Jeb Hensarling, a Republican from Dallas, was first elected in 2002 to a heavily Republican district comprising of east Dallas and its neighboring suburbs, and stretching to the south and east to a number of small East Texas counties. A favorite among fiscal conservatives in Texas, Hensarling is a potential challenger for the U.S. Senate in 2012 should the incumbent Republican, Kay Bailey Hutchison, retire. In 2008, Hensarling is expected to win another term in this district despite recent Democratic gains in Dallas County. Hensarling was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 6
Twelve-term Republican Joe Barton of Ennis was the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee until Democrats took over the House in 2006. The district stretches from Arlington southward to several east central Texas counties all the way to Trinity County, which is west of Lufkin and is heavily Republican. Barton won the 2008 primary, and will face Democratic winner Ludwig Otto [1] in November.
[edit] District 7
Conservative Houston Republican John Culberson won a surprisingly modest 59% of the vote in 2006 in what is otherwise a normally strong Republican district. He is still favored to win in 2008, given the 2006 anti-Republican trend and the normally Republican voting trend of this mainly suburban district, which is among the most affluent in the nation.
The district, which was once represented by former President George Bush, includes much of heavily Republican west Houston, including the mostly urban River Oaks, Galleria/Post Oak and Greenway Plaza areas, the highly affluent Memorial/Spring Branch area, and the island cities of Bellaire, West University Place, and Jersey Village, as well as many unincorporated areas of northwest Harris County including a large chunk of the Cypress-Fairbanks area. The district also includes the heavily Democratic Montrose area. No Democrat has served this district since 1966, before the district was based in its current location.
John Culberson will face businessman Michael Skelly in the November 2008 election. Skelly, a former executive of Horizon Wind Energy, earned an MBA from Harvard after serving in the Peace Corps. Skelly currently serves on Mayor Bill White's Green Building Advisory Committee [2].
[edit] District 8
Republican Kevin Brady of The Woodlands represents a strongly GOP district centered around the northern suburbs and exurbs of Houston and Beaumont as well as the Huntsville and Lake Livingston areas, winning two-thirds of the vote in 2004 and 2006. The district is expected to remain in Republican hands; no Democrat has won this district since Jimmy Carter, the last Democrat to carry Texas in the presidential electoral college (in 1976), was President. Brady won the 2008 Primary and will face Democrat Kent Hargett in November.
[edit] District 9
Sophomore Democrat Al Green is not expected to face a serious challenge in 2008 for his heavily Democratic district, which is situated in southwest Houston and includes Houston’s Southside, as well as the Mission Bend and Alief areas (which have large Asian-American populations) and several heavily black and Hispanic northeastern neighborhoods of Missouri City. He was elected by a 3 to 1 margin in 2004 after defeating displaced incumbent Congressman and fellow Democrat Chris Bell in the primary (Bell was moved out of his previous district in the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay), and won a second term unopposed in 2006. Green was renominated, while no Republicans ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 10
Republican Michael McCaul of Austin represents a Republican-leaning district that stretches from north Austin into Brenham traveling all the way to several far western and northwestern suburbs of Houston. McCaul won only 55% of the vote against a token Democratic challenger, Ted Ankrum, and 2004 Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. The GOP is generally favored to hold on to the seat in 2008. Attorney, poet and former TV courtroom judge Larry Joe Doherty has won the Democrat nomination and will face McCaul in November.
[edit] District 11
Midland Republican Mike Conaway represents George W. Bush’s strongest district in the 2004 election. He won 77% of the vote in 2004 and was one of only a handful of Republicans who ran unopposed in 2006. Conaway’s district stretches from the Midland and San Angelo areas to several mostly rural areas northwest of Austin. This district will almost certainly remain in Republican hands, as no Democrat even ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 12
Republican Kay Granger, who is considered a moderate by Texas Republican standards, won two-thirds of the vote in 2006, outperforming most of her fellow Texas Republican colleagues. The popular Fort Worth-based Granger is expected to win re-election in 2008 in this district comprising western areas of Fort Worth and surrounding areas. Granger will face Democrat nominee Tracey Smith in November.
[edit] District 13
Mac Thornberry represents this Texas Panhandle district that encompasses Amarillo and Wichita Falls. The Clarendon Republican won by a 3 to 1 margin in 2006 and faced only a Libertarian candidate in 2004. Thornberry will run against Democrat nominee Roger Waun in November.
[edit] District 14
Republican Ron Paul is best known for strict constitutionalist political views, which emphasize strongly libertarian views. His slogan, “The Taxpayers’ Best Friend”, emphasizes his strong — and sometimes controversial — takes on fiscal conservatism, while his social policies, which includes ending the federal War on Drugs and legalizing marijuana, as well as his belief that the federal government should not be involved in wedge issues such as gay marriage, leading to a more negative nickname, "Dr. No", for his votes against much of the legislative agenda of both parties in Congress.
The 73-year-old physician is a resident of Surfside. Paul is a Republican candidate in the 2008 presidential election (his second, following his run as Libertarian Party nominee in 1988), and is running for re-election.
In 2006, Ron Paul won 60% of the vote against Democratic opponent Shane Sklar, a young rancher and Executive Director of the Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas (ICA) who ran on a promise to serve as a fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrat and received a slightly more favorable rating from the NRA, in attempt to defeat the popular Paul. Paul was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 Primary. Libertarian Eugene J. Flynn filed to run on December 20th [3][4]. The district extends from several far southern and southeastern areas of Houston, including Galveston and Brazoria County, to the Bay City, Wharton County, and Victoria areas.
[edit] District 15
Democrat Rubén Hinojosa of Mercedes won 62% of the vote in 2004 in a South Texas district that had to be realigned following a Supreme Court decision that made the neighboring 23rd District unconstitutional. Hinojosa, who will be 68 in 2008, won the Democrat nomination and will face Republican nominee Eddie Zamora in November.
[edit] District 16
Democrat Silvestre Reyes represents El Paso and is the Chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which could make him a target of some conservative Republicans over issues relating to immigration in spite of the fact that Reyes was a former border patrol agent. Still, the district remains overwhelmingly Democratic due to its large Hispanic population, and Reyes is popular with his constituents. He won two-thirds of the 2004 vote in a district that swung strongly in favor of John Kerry, and won with no Republican challenger in 2006. Reyes was renominated, while no Republican ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 17
Democrat Chet Edwards has been targeted for defeat in many recent elections. His district is widely seen as arguably the most heavily Republican district held by a Democrat, and won a close election in 2004, but recovered in 2006 with a strong eighteen point win. The district, which includes the official residence of George W. Bush, stretches from several rural areas south of Fort Worth to Edwards’ hometown of Waco and the Brazos Valley region, which comprises the Bryan-College Station area. Edwards won the 2008 Democrat nomination and will face Republican nominee Rob Curnock in November. This district gave George W. Bush 70% of the vote in 2004.
[edit] District 18
Democrat Sheila Jackson Lee represents one of the most heavily Democratic areas in the state, covering several largely poor and African-American areas of Houston (including downtown Houston) and whose three previous representatives (Barbara Jordan, Mickey Leland and Craig Washington) were all African-Americans and took staunch liberal stances.
A regular during C-SPAN’s gavel-to-gavel coverage of the House while it is in session, Jackson Lee has also been seen as controversial, and is considered by some to be one of the “meanest” members of the House, as she is known to have one of the highest turnover rates of any congressional staff. Still, she is a well-respected figure in the district, and has been re-elected with at least 80% of the vote many times.
Jackson Lee won the Democrat nomination and will face Republican nominee John Faulk in the 2008 November general election.
[edit] District 19
Republican Randy Neugebauer of Lubbock won re-election in 2006 with 68% of the vote. His district is heavily Republican and stretches from Lubbock to Big Spring and Abilene and was created in the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting, which in 2004 led to the defeat of Neugebauer’s challenger, conservative Democrat Charles Stenholm. Neugebauer is favored to win re-election versus 2008 Democrat nominee Dwight Fullingim.
[edit] District 20
Democrat Charlie Gonzalez represents much of heavily Democratic, largely Hispanic inner San Antonio, including the downtown area. Gonzalez won 87% of the vote in 2006 against a Libertarian opponent and two-thirds of the 2004 vote. Gonzalez is heavily favored to win re-election to this seat, which was once held by his father, Henry Gonzalez for nearly four decades. The Gonzalez family will have represented this district for 47 years in 2008. Charlie will fave 2008 Republican nominee Robert Litoff in the November general election.
[edit] District 21
Longtime representative Lamar Smith was the only Republican to win among the five congressional districts realigned as a result of a Supreme Court ruling that declared the nearby 23rd District unconstitutional as a result of allegations of diluted Hispanic voting power during the controversial 2003 Texas redistricting. Smith ended up being moved into a district that now encompasses several northern San Antonio suburbs as well as the Texas Hill Country and western parts of Travis County. The district includes a heavily Democratic portion of Austin, including the area around the University of Texas at Austin. However, it is no match for the heavily Republican areas around San Antonio. The Supreme Court decision restored a large amount of territory that had been shifted to Henry Bonilla's district in 2003. Smith won 60% of the vote in 2006 against six challengers, including two Democrats, in a special election that resulted from the ruling. Smith was renominated, while no Democrats ran in the 2008 Primary.
[edit] District 22
This district was once represented by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who resigned amid allegations of corruption surrounding his campaign finance activities for ARMPAC and its Texas division, TRMPAC.
Democrat Nick Lampson, who moved from Beaumont to Stafford to run against DeLay, ended up winning the seat after Republicans were forced to run a write-in campaign for dermatologist and former Houston City Councilwoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who won a special election (whose candidates did not include Lampson) to fill the remaining seven weeks of DeLay’s unexpired term. The write-in campaign resulted from a court ruling filed by Democrats that prevented the Republicans from removing DeLay’s name from the ballot, arguing that election regulations in Texas prevented the GOP from removing DeLay’s name unless he moved out-of-state, which he did in moving to Alexandria, Virginia from his home in Sugar Land. Given these circumstances, and the fact that John Kerry only carried one-third of the district in 2004, Lampson is considered by many political pundits to be among the most vulnerable Democrats in 2008.
The heavily Republican district includes several of Houston’s affluent southern suburbs, including all of Sugar Land, affluent areas of Missouri City, Pearland, Pasadena and its surrounding smaller municipalities, and the Clear Lake master-planned community. The district is also home to the NASA Johnson Space Center, which houses Mission Control, and Ellington Field. Lampson was also being mentioned as a potential candidate for the Senate in 2008, where he would face marginal Republican incumbent John Cornyn, but Lampson instead chose to run for re-election to his congressional seat. Interestingly, Lampson topped a list of Democrats targeted by Republican campaign operative Karl Rove in 2008.
In addition to the general election, the Republican primary is also expected to be a hard-fought contest. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs created a stir with her constituents shortly after being sworn in for the last seven weeks of the 109th Congress when several former DeLay staffers walked out on her and alleged that Sekula-Gibbs espoused unprofessional behavior. Sekula-Gibbs, however, claims that the staffers themselves acted unprofessionally to her and therefore, she called for an ethics investigation. Popular three-term Sugar Land mayor David Wallace and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt also jockeyed for the Republican nomination in 2006 but were both passed over in favor of Sekula-Gibbs. Wallace and Bettencourt have since ruled out a run.
The top two vote getters in the 2008 Republican Primary faced off in a runoff election on April 8. Former senatorial aide Pete Olson defeated 2006 nominee Shelly Sekula-Gibbs in the run-off.
[edit] District 23
Ciro Rodriguez, a former Democratic congressman from San Antonio, defeated incumbent Republican Henry Bonilla in a December runoff after finishing in second place to Bonilla during the November general election, when Rodriguez himself ran out of money but was later helped by the DCCC. He was a former congressman who represented the nearby 28th District until a controversial redistricting plan that made this district more heavily Republican and favorable to Bonilla resulted in his defeat by that district’s current representative, Henry Cuellar. Bonilla was seen as an ally of Tom DeLay, who engineered the redistricting. Also, a Supreme Court ruled Bonilla’s district, which was situated in the Hill Country suburbs of San Antonio, unconstitutional over claims that Hispanic voting rights were diluted in the redistricting. This resulted in the 23rd becoming much more Democratic with the addition of south San Antonio, which is Rodriguez’s home base, and the removal of the Hill Country portions from the district, which were moved to Lamar Smith’s district.
This majority-Hispanic district could become a target of Republicans in 2008 that look to take back this seat. Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson is the Republican nominee. In addition to southern San Antonio and Bexar County, the district also includes several northwestern areas of San Antonio. Other areas represented in the district include the border towns of Del Rio and Eagle Pass, as well as Big Bend National Park and eastern El Paso County.
[edit] District 24
Republican Kenny Marchant of Coppell won 60% of the vote in this Republican-leaning district that gave George W. Bush 65% of the vote in 2004. Marchant is heavily favored to win re-election to this district, which is located in the middle of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and includes the suburbs of Duncanville and Cedar Hill in the south, Grand Prairie and part of Irving in the central area of the district, and Colleyville, Grapevine and the Carrollton-Farmers Branch area in the north, as well as Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Marchant’s district was previously represented by Martin Frost, who was moved out of this district in Tom DeLay’s controversial 2003 redistricting of the state. Marchant will face 2008 Democrat nominee Tom Love and 2008 Libertarian nominee David A. Casey in the November election.
[edit] District 25
Austin Democrat Lloyd Doggett represents a Democratic-leaning constituency that is centered around the Austin area and several smaller rural areas to the south and east which either lean Republican or strongly favor Republicans. Doggett won 67% of the vote against a largely unknown Republican opponent who initially ran as a Libertarian until the previous 25th district was thrown out in a Supreme Court ruling that declared the nearby 23rd District of Henry Bonilla unconstitutional; this district was realigned as a result of the controversial mid-decade redistricting engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, which realigned Doggett's district into a linear form that was derisively referred to as the "fajita strip". Doggett will face 2008 Republican nominee George Morovich in the November election.
[edit] District 26
Republican Michael Burgess of Lewisville won 60% of the vote in 2006 against an underfunded Democratic opponent, a six-percent drop from his 2004 victory against another Democrat. However, Burgess will be assured of a safe seat, as his seat takes in most of Denton County as well as parts of Fort Worth and lean heavily in favor of the Republican Party. The district was once represented by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who engineered the 1994 Republican Revolution along with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Burgess will face 2008 Democrat nominee Ken Leach in the November election.
[edit] District 27
The District is represented by Moderate Democrat Solomon Ortiz, the Dean of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Ortiz received 57% of the vote in 2006, a six-point decline from his 2004 performance, which was somewhat of an anomaly given the strong anti-Republican voting mood of 2006, where Democrats either performed above their 2004 performance or ran without opposition. In 2004, George W. Bush carried this South Texas district, which includes Corpus Christi as well as Brownsville and South Padre Island. Ortiz won the Democrat nomination and will face Republican nominee Willie Vaden in November.
[edit] District 28
Conservative Democrat Henry Cuellar won 68% of the vote in 2006 against another Democrat who received 20% of the vote. Even though Cuellar is becoming a rising star in the Democratic Party, and has even been seen by some as a potential Democratic challenger to Senator John Cornyn, Cuellar could face a challenge for his seat, which includes Laredo (where Cuellar resides) and areas south of San Antonio, due to his somewhat conservative voting record. For instance, Cuellar received the backing of the conservative Club for Growth during his 2006 primary campaign against Ciro Rodriguez, his predecessor, who later went on to win the 23rd District held by Republican Henry Bonilla, whom Cuellar nearly defeated in 2002. Cuellar won the Democrat nomination and will face Republican nominee Jim Fish in November.
[edit] District 29
Democrat Gene Green of Houston has won re-election easily without facing a primary challenge in this strongly Latino, heavily Democratic district, which covers eastern portions of Houston as well as some of its suburbs. It is highly unlikely that Green will face a strong challenge from Republican nominee Eric Story in November.
[edit] District 30
Dallas Democrat Eddie Bernice Johnson currently represents this district. She will be 73 in 2008 and represents inner city areas of Dallas, including its downtown areas, as well as several southern Dallas County suburbs south of the city, which boast a large African-American voting bloc. Johnson won the Primary and will face Republican nominee Fred Wood in November.
[edit] District 31
John Carter of Round Rock won 59% of the vote in 2006 against a token Democratic opponent. His district, which was created as a result of the 2000 Census, stretches across a large segment of Central Texas from the northern Williamson County suburbs of Austin to the gigantic Fort Hood military base, all the way north to Stephenville. This description of the district would make it an opportunity for the Fighting Dems, a faction of military veterans who are members of the Democratic Party. Radio producer Brian P. Ruiz of Hutto has won the Democratic nomination and will challenge Carter in November.
[edit] District 32
Six-term incumbent and conservative Republican Pete Sessions of Dallas is likely considered to be a vulnerable candidate for a number of reasons.
First, he is known to have close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, an issue that is likely to become the focus of his Democratic challenger’s campaign in 2008. Also, while Sessions improved on his margin from his hotly contested 2004 race against Democrat Martin Frost, who was displaced from his previous district as a result of the controversial 2003 redistricting engineered by former House Majority Leader and Abramoff ally, Tom DeLay, it was only by a 2% margin (from 54% in 2004 to 56% in 2006). Contrarily, George W. Bush carried 59% of the vote in the district to 41% of the vote for John Kerry in 2004.
Finally, in 2006, Democrats made unexpected gains in Dallas County, winning the District Attorney office and all contested state district judgeships in the county, along with a number of countywide offices on the basis of corruption within the local Republican establishment as well as momentum gained from Democratic Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez’s unexpected 2004 victory.
Still, in spite of these factors, Sessions is likely favored to win this Republican-leaning district, which includes several northern affluent areas of Dallas, including Highland Park, and significant chunks of the suburbs of Irving and Richardson. Two Democrats, Eric Roberson and Steve Love, will face off on the April 8th Runoff election to determine the Democrat nominee that will face Sessions in November. In Texas, a Primary Runoff Election is held with the top 2 vote-getters in the Primary Election (held March 4th) if no one receives 50% of the vote.
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