Texas Senate

Texas Senate
Texas Senate
88th Texas Legislature
Type
Type	Upper house of the Texas Legislature
Term limits	None
History
New session started	January 10, 2023
Leadership
President	Dan Patrick (R) ; since January 20, 2015
President pro tempore	Charles Schwertner (R) ; since May 29, 2023
Majority Leader	Angela Paxton (R) ; since September 16, 2023
Minority Leader	Carol Alvarado (D) ; since January 8, 2020
Structure
Seats	31
Political groups	Majority Republican (19); Minority Democratic (12);
Length of term	4 years (with one 2-year term each decade)
Authority	Article 3, Texas Constitution
Salary	$7,200/year + per diem
Elections
Voting system	First-past-the-post
Last election	November 8, 2022; (31 seats)
Next election	November 5, 2024; (15 seats)
Redistricting	Legislative control
Meeting place
	State Senate Chamber; Texas State Capitol; Austin, Texas
Website
	Texas State Senate

The Texas Senate is the upper house of the Texas Legislature, with the Texas House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, they compose the state legislature of the state of Texas.

There are 31 members of the Senate, representing single-member districts across the U.S. state of Texas, with populations of approximately 940,000 per constituency, based on the 2020 U.S. Census. Elections are held in even-numbered years on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

There are no term limits. Terms are four years in length, with one two-year term each decade. Senators are divided into two groups based in part on the intervening Census:

In elections in years ending in 2 (the election after the Census), all 31 seats are up for election.
Once the Senate meets in session after said election, the Senators will participate in a drawing to determine their election cycle:
- One-half will have a 2-4-4 cycle, whereupon the seat would stand for election after two years (the year ending in 4) for a four-year term, followed by another four-year term (elected in the year ending in 8).
- The other half will have a 4-4-2 cycle, whereupon the seat would stand for election after four years (the year ending in 6) for another four-year term, followed by a two-year term (elected in the year ending in 0).

As such, every two years, about half of the Texas Senate is on the ballot.

The Senate meets at the Texas State Capitol in Austin. The Republicans currently control the chamber, which is made up of 19 Republicans and 12 Democrats.

Leadership

The Lieutenant Governor of Texas serves as the President of the Senate. Unlike most lieutenant governors who are constitutionally designated as presiding officers of the upper house, the Lieutenant Governor regularly presides over the chamber rather than delegate this role to the President Pro Tempore. The Lieutenant Governor's duties include appointing chairs of committees, committee members, assigning and referring bills to specific committees, recognizing members during debate, and making procedural rulings. The Lieutenant Governor may also cast a vote should a Senate floor vote end in a tie. If the Senate votes to dissolve itself into the Committee of the Whole, in which all members are part of the Committee, the President Pro-Tempore presides over the proceedings, with the Lieutenant Governor acting as a regular voting member. Due to the various powers of committee selection and bill assignment, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas is considered one of the most powerful lieutenant governorships in the United States.

Unlike other state legislatures, the Texas Senate does not include majority or minority leaders. Instead, the President Pro Tempore is considered the second most powerful position, and can be reserved to any political party in the chamber regardless if the party is a majority or not. Presidents Pro Tempore are usually the most senior members of the Senate. The President Pro Tempore presides when the Lieutenant Governor is not present or when the legislature is not in regular session.

Leaders

Position	Name	Party	Residence	District
Lieutenant Governor/President of the Senate	Dan Patrick	Republican	Houston	Elected Statewide
President Pro Tempore	Charles Schwertner	Republican	Georgetown	5

History

Quorum-busting

There have been at least three cases of quorum-busting in Texas Senate history. The first case was in 1870, with the Rump Senate, followed by the 1979 Killer Bees^[1] and finally the "Texas Eleven" in August 2003 during the controversial mid-decade redistricting plan at the time.^[2]

Committee structure

The following represents the Senate committee structure for the 88th Legislature (numbers in parentheses are the number of committee members, as appointed by the President of the Texas Senate).^[3]

Administration (7)
Border Security (5)
Business and Commerce (11)
Criminal Justice (7)
Education (13)
- Under this Committee, a Subcommittee on Higher Education (5)
Finance (17)
Health & Human Services (9)
Jurisprudence (5)
Local Government (9)
Natural Resources and Economic Development (9)
Nominations (9)
State Affairs (11)
Transportation (9)
Veteran Affairs (7)
Water, Agriculture and Rural Affairs (9)

In addition to these committees, there are also six joint committees composed of members of both the State Senate and House:

Criminal Justice Legislative Oversight
Legislative Audit Committee^[4]^{[note 1]}
Legislative Budget Board^[5]^{[note 2]}
Legislative Reference Library Board^[6]^{[note 3]}
Sunset Advisory Commission
Texas Legislative Council^[7]^{[note 4]}

Current composition

↓
12	19
Democratic	Republican

Affiliation	Party (shading indicates majority caucus)		Total

	Republican	Democratic		Vacant
2011–12	19	12	31	0

2013–14	19	12	31	0

2015-16	20	11	31	0

2017–18	20	11	31	0

2019–20	19	11	31	0

2021–22	18	13	31	0

2023–24	19	12	31	0

Latest voting share	61.3%	38.7%

Senate districts and party affiliation after the 2022 election
Republican Party

Democratic Party

Current members, 2023–2025

District	Senator	Party	Residence	First elected	Next election
1	Bryan Hughes	Rep	Mineola	2016	2026
2	Bob Hall	Rep	Edgewood	2014	2026
3	Robert Nichols	Rep	Jacksonville	2006	2026
4	Brandon Creighton	Rep	Conroe	2014†	2026
5	Charles Schwertner	Rep	Georgetown	2012	2026
6	Carol Alvarado	Dem	Houston	2018†	2024
7	Paul Bettencourt	Rep	Houston	2014	2024
8	Angela Paxton	Rep	McKinney	2018	2024
9	Kelly Hancock	Rep	Fort Worth	2012	2026
10	Phil King	Rep	Weatherford	2022	2024
11	Mayes Middleton	Rep	Friendswood	2022	2026
12	Tan Parker	Rep	Flower Mound	2022	2024
13	Borris Miles	Dem	Houston	2016	2026
14	Sarah Eckhardt	Dem	Austin	2020†	2024
15	Molly Cook	Dem	Houston	2024†	2024
16	Nathan Johnson	Dem	Dallas	2018	2024
17	Joan Huffman	Rep	Houston	2008†	2024
18	Lois Kolkhorst	Rep	Brenham	2014†	2026
19	Roland Gutierrez	Dem	San Antonio	2020	2026
20	Juan Hinojosa	Dem	McAllen	2002	2024
21	Judith Zaffirini	Dem	Laredo	1986	2026
22	Brian Birdwell	Rep	Granbury	2010†	2026
23	Royce West	Dem	Dallas	1992	2024
24	Pete Flores	Rep	Pleasanton	2022	2026
25	Donna Campbell	Rep	New Braunfels	2012	2024
26	Jose Menendez	Dem	San Antonio	2015†	2026
27	Morgan LaMantia	Dem	Brownsville	2022	2024
28	Charles Perry	Rep	Lubbock	2014†	2026
29	Cesar Blanco	Dem	El Paso	2020	2024
30	Drew Springer	Rep	Muenster	2020†	2024
31	Kevin Sparks	Rep	Midland	2022	2026

† Elected in a special election

Notable past members

Edward Clark, Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1859–1861), Governor of Texas (1861).
Wayne Connally, Senator from Wilson County (1967–1973), brother of Governor John Connally.
Lloyd Doggett, Texas Supreme Court Justice (1989–1994), U.S. House of Representatives (1995–present).
Robert L. Duncan, State Senator from Lubbock, 1996–2014; Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System since 2014
Chet Edwards, U.S. House of Representatives (1991–2011).
Pat Fallon, U.S. House of Representatives (2021–present)
James W. Flanagan, U.S. Senate (1870–1875).
Sylvia Garcia, U.S. House of Representatives (2019–present)
Glenn Hegar, current Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (2015–present).
John Ireland, Texas Supreme Court Justice (1876), Governor of Texas (1883–1887).
Eddie Bernice Johnson, U.S. House of Representatives (1993–2023).
Rienzi Melville Johnston, U.S. Senate (1913).
Barbara Jordan, U.S. House of Representatives (1973–1979).
Earle Bradford Mayfield, U.S. Senate (1923–1929).
William Neff "Bill" Patman, Senator from Jackson County (1961–1981), U.S. House of Representatives (1981–1985).
Dan Patrick, current Lieutenant Governor of Texas (2015–present).
Jerry E. Patterson, Commissioner of the Texas General Land Office (2003–2015).
Lawrence Sullivan Ross, Governor of Texas, (1887–1891).
Joseph D. Sayers, Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1879–1881), U.S. House of Representatives (1885–1899), Governor of Texas (1899–1903).
Allan Shivers, Lieutenant Governor of Texas (1946–1949), Governor of Texas (1949–1957).
Preston Smith, Governor of Texas (1969–1973).
Frank Tejeda, U.S. House of Representatives (1993–1997).
James W. Throckmorton, Governor of Texas (1866–1867), U.S. House of Representatives (1875–1879, 1883–1887).
Carlos Truan, Senator from Corpus Christi (1977–2003); author of Texas Bilingual Education Act.
Jim Turner, U.S. House of Representatives (1997–2005).
Matthias Ward, U.S. Senate (1858–1859).
Kirk Watson, Mayor of Austin (1997-2001, 2023–present)
Ferdinand C. Weinert, Texas House and Texas Senate (1893–1935), Texas Secretary of State (1913).
Louis Wigfall, U.S. Senate (1859–1861).
Charles Wilson, U.S. House of Representatives (1973–1997).
Roy Blake, Sr., Senator from Nacogdoches County, Texas, (1978-1989), [President Pro Tempore] (1987–1989).

Past composition of the Senate

The Senate was continuously held by Democrats from the end of the Reconstruction era until the Seventy-fifth Texas Legislature was seated in 1997, at which point Republicans took control. The Republican Party has maintained its control of the Senate since then.

Obsolete districts

Notes

^ This committees has six members: the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor (who serve as joint chairs), the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the Chairs of the House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees, and one Senator appointed by the Lieutenant Governor; the Committee in turn hires and oversees the State Auditor of Texas.
^ This committee has ten members: the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor (who serve as joint chairs), the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee, the Chairs of the House Appropriations and Ways and Means Committees, three Senators appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and two Representatives appointed by the Speaker.
^ This committee has six members: the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, two Senators appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and one Representative appointed by the Speaker.
^ This committee has 14 members: the Speaker of the House and the Lieutenant Governor (who serve as joint chairs), the Chair of the House Administration Committee, six Senators appointed by the Lieutenant Governor, and five Representatives appointed by the Speaker.