For the U.S. Congress, Republicans have won enough seats to take over control of the House and Democrats will have at least fifty one Senate seats, including two Independents, to maintain control of that body. As of 2 a.m. ET Wednesday, the Associated Press had called 58 Democratic House seats for Republicans, while Democrats gained two Republican seats.
37 Governor’s races took place at the state level. As of 7 a.m. CST, 8 Democrats won and 21 Republicans won the race for Governor. All Republican incumbents held on to their seats while 3 Democratic incumbents were defeated. These positions have been noted as key since in 2011 the process of redistricting the seats in the House will occur. It has been speculated that Texas may add as many as four U.S. House seats to its current 32 seats.
Texas Governor Rick Perry was re-elected to another term with 55% of the vote defeating Democratic challenger Bill White who captured 42% of the votes.
In addition to Texas Governor, Republicans also captured statewide offices including:
Lieutenant Governor- incumbent David Dewhurst
Attorney General – incumbent Greg Abbott
Comptroller of Public Accounts – incumbent Susan Combs
Commissioner of the General Land Office – incumbent Jerry Patterson
Agriculture Commissioner – incumbent Todd Staples
Railroad Commissioner – David Porter
Statewide Courts – Republicans retained three seats on both the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals. Supreme Court: Debra Lehrmann, Paul Green and Eva Guzman. Appeals Court: Michael Keasler, Cheryl Johnson and Larry Meyers.
State Board of Education – Six seats went to Republicans with one going to a Democratic candidate:
In district 1 Republican Carlos “Charlie” Garza defeated Democratic incumbent Rene Nunez.
In district 3 Democrat Michael Soto defeated Republican Tony Cunningham.
In district 5 Republican incumbent Ken Mercer defeated Rebecca Bell-Meterau
In district 9 Republican Thomas Ratliff defeated Libertarian candidate Jeff McGee.
In district 10 Republican Marsha Farney defeated Democratic candidate Judy Jennings.
In district 12 Republican George Clayton defeated Amie Parsons, Libertarian candidate.
In district 15 Republican Bob Craig defeated Libertarian candidate John Pekowski.
There were no changes in the Texas Senate, all incumbents were re-elected to their seats by Texas voters.
