The 2008 Texas House of Representatives elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state representatives in all 150 State House of Representatives districts. The winners of this election served in the 81st Texas Legislature. State representatives serve for two-year terms. Republicans maintained control of the House, losing three seats to the Democrats.
Background
Following the 2002 elections, the Republicans gained control of the House, giving them a governmental trifecta for the first time since Reconstruction.[1][2] Democrats made significant gains in the 2006 elections, and they gained two more seats following them, one due to a special election, and another due to the defection of Republican Kirk England to the Democratic Party.[3][4] Democrats needed to gain five seats from the Republicans to win control of the chamber.
Democrats gained a net of three seats from the Republicans, failing to take control of the chamber, but leaving Republicans with a very narrow majority.[6] Control of the chamber remained unclear for multiple days after the election due to a recount in District 105. Incumbent Republican Linda Harper-Brown led her Democratic challenger Bob Romano by 20 votes after election day counting concluded. The recount only reduced Harper-Brown's lead by one vote, confirming her victory in the seat and Republicans' control of the chamber. Had Romano won, the chamber would have been tied.[7][8]
Statewide
Summary of the November 4, 2008 Texas House of Representatives election results
2008 Texas' 85th state house district results by county:
Map Legend
Heflin—70–80%
Heflin—60–70%
Heflin—50–60%
Castro—50–60%
District 85: District 85, located in West Texas near Lubbock, had been held by Democrat Pete Laney for decades, but his retirement in 2006 left the seat highly vulnerable for a Republican pickup as the area had swung rapidly towards the Republicans since the 1990s. In fact, no Democrat had won any of the counties contained within the district in a presidential election since 1996. Despite this swing, Democrat Joe Heflin managed to win the open seat with 49.01% of the vote in 2006.[9] The seat was again vulnerable in 2008, but Heflin managed to win re-election with 53.38%, severely outperforming Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who only won 27.33% of the district's vote in the concurrent presidential election.[10][11] Heflin performed best in Crosby County, his home county.[12][13]
District 97: A special election was held on November 6, 2007, to fill the unexpired term of Rep. Anna Mowery. Dan Barret, who had lost the seat to Mowery in 2006,[9] ran against 6 Republicans in the jungle primary, securing a plurality of 31.53% of the vote.[14] A runoff was held on December 18, 2007, between Barret and second-place finisher, Mark M. Shelton in which Barret won an upset victory with 52.19% of the vote.[3] As the legislative session had already ended, Barret did not spend any time legislating during his term. He was later defeated by Shelton in the 2008 general election, only securing 42.75% of the vote.
Texas's 97th state house district special election
District 106: Representative Kirk England was re-elected in 2006 as a Republican with 49.16% of the vote.[15] On September 20, 2007, he announced that he would switch parties and seek re-election as a Democrat.[4] He would later go on to win re-election in 2008 with 55.49% of the vote before losing re-election by 204 votes in 2010 to Republican Rodney Anderson.[16]
^ abNichols, Lee (September 19, 2007). "Rep. England to Turn Democrat". www.austinchronicle.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2021. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
