2016 Texas Senate election

The 2016 Texas Senate elections took place as part of the biennial United States elections. Texas voters elected state senators in 16 of the 31 state senate districts. The winners of this election served in the 85th Texas Legislature. State senators serve four-year terms in the Texas State Senate. A statewide map of Texas's state Senate districts can be obtained from the Texas Legislative Council here, and individual district maps can be obtained from the U.S. Census here.

2016 Texas Senate election

← 2014 November 8, 2016 2018 →
16 of the 31 seats in the Texas State Senate 16 seats needed for a majority
Majority party Minority party   Leader Paul Bettencourt José R. Rodríguez Party Republican Democratic Leader's seat 7th district 29th district Last election 20 seats, 63.09%[1] 11 seats, 29.71%[1] Seats won 20 11 Seat change Popular vote 1,985,241 1,355,412 Percentage 56.31% 38.45% Swing 6.78% 8.74%
Election results      Republican hold      Democratic hold      No election

Following the 2014 State Senate elections, the Republicans maintained effective control of the Senate with twenty members to the Democrats' eleven.

To claim control of the chamber from Republicans, the Democrats needed to gain five Senate seats. While the statewide popular vote for this class of Senators swung 8.6 percentage points toward the Democrats when compared to the vote they earned in the 2012 elections,^{[note 1]} both parties retained the eight seats each was defending.

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
Governing[3]	Safe R	October 12, 2016

Summary of race results

Summary of the November 8, 2016 Texas Senate election results

Party		Candidates	Votes		Seats
			No.	%	Before	Up	Won	After	+/–
	Republican	10	1,985,241	56.31	20	8	8	20
	Democratic	10	1,355,412	38.45	11	8	8	11
	Libertarian	6	172,255	4.89	0	0	0	0
	Green	1	12,535	0.36	0	0	0	0
Total			3,525,443	100.00	31	16	16	31
Source:[4]

Popular vote Republican   56.31% Democratic   38.45% Other   5.24%

Senate seats won Republican   50.00% Democratic   50.00%

District	Democratic		Republican		Others		Total		Result
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
District 1	-	-	245,648	100.00%	-	-	245,648	100.00%	Republican hold
District 4	-	-	239,869	87.33%	34,791	12.67%	274,660	100.00%	Republican hold
District 6	119,891	100.00%	-	-	-	-	119,891	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 11	-	-	218,201	100.00%	-	-	218,201	100.00%	Republican hold
District 12	-	-	241,232	82.98%	49,465	17.02%	290,697	100.00%	Republican hold
District 13	178,277	92.50%	-	-	14,447	7.50%	192,724	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 18	-	-	229,051	85.78%	37,965	14.22%	267,016	100.00%	Republican hold
District 19	134,997	55.87%	97,682	40.43%	8,948	3.70%	241,627	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 20	132,128	61.68%	82,098	38.32%	-	-	214,226	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 21	160,959	100.00%	-	-	-	-	160,959	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 22	88,769	29.57%	211,380	70.43%	-	-	300,149	100.00%	Republican hold
District 24	81,836	27.61%	214,568	72.39%	-	-	296,404	100.00%	Republican hold
District 26	155,441	79.87%	-	-	39,174	20.13%	194,615	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 27	135,945	100.00%	-	-	-	-	135,945	100.00%	Democratic hold
District 28	-	-	205,512	100.00%	-	-	205,512	100.00%	Republican hold
District 29	167,169	100.00%	-	-	-	-	167,169	100.00%	Democratic hold
Total	1,355,412	38.45%	1,985,241	56.31%	184,790	5.24%	3,525,443	100.00%	Source:[4]

Notes

1. Texas holds elections for all Senate seats in years ending in 2. In 2012, for this particular class of Senators, the Republicans and Democrats won 60.42% and 34.00% of the vote, respectively.^[2]