AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republicans are certain to maintain their majority in the Texas Legislature after Tuesday's general election. The only question is by how much.
A new political map guarantees that Democrats will win additional seats in the Texas House, and Republicans admit they will likely lose their 102-48 supermajority. Democrats hope to add 14 members, mostly in urban areas and South Texas, while Republicans want to limit them to six.
Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis in Fort Worth is in an intense fight to hold on to her seat against state Rep. Mark Shelton. Shelton has blasted Davis as too liberal for Tarrant County and has filed ethics complaints against her, while Davis has denied any wrongdoing and accused Shelton of shilling for tea party members outside of her district.
If Shelton wins, that will give Republicans 20 seats to 11 Democratic seats in the state Senate. Under the Senate's traditional rules, a bill needs 21 votes to make it onto the floor for debate, and Republicans are fighting for every possible seat to achieve a supermajority that can suspend the rules.
Democratic voters in Harris County are being asked to vote for deceased Sen. Mario Gallegos Jr., who died in the final weeks of the campaign after the county had sent out mail-in ballots. He is expected to easily win the election, and the governor will likely call for a special election in December.
Republicans held a supermajority in the Texas House last year, allowing them to pass almost any law they wanted. Democrats could do little but use parliamentary procedure to slow down the conservative agenda.
More than 99 of the races are virtually uncontested meaning that a real contest only exists in 51 districts. Of those only 17 are considered competitive. By whittling away at the Republican majority, Democratic leaders have said they plan to insist on more compromise.
That will be tough when 20 percent of the lawmakers will be freshmen, most them tea party Republicans, many of whom defeated moderate Republicans in the primaries.
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