2016 Texas Senate election

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

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.

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.