1964 Texas Senate election

none December 2025 December 2025 1964 Texas Senate election Texas Legislative Popular No 1962 Texas Senate election 1962 1966 Texas Senate election 1966 15 out of 31 seats in the Texas Senate 16 November 3, 1964 Democratic Party (United States) 31 31 805,179 84.66% Republican Party (United States) 0 0 145,897 15.34% 300px Senate results by district#92C5DE Democratic hold #D0D0D0 No election President pro tempore Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party (United States) 4.16% 4.16% The 1964 Texas Senate election was held on November 3, 1964, to determine which party would control the Texas Senate for the following two years in the 59th Texas Legislature. Fifteen out of the 31 seats in the Texas Senate were up for election to four-year terms, but these terms were cut short following the election by the U.S. Supreme Court decision Reynolds v. Sims, which forced the state to undergo mid-decade redistricting to rectify egregious malapportionment among Senate districts. Democrats maintained control of every seat in the Senate. Background Democrats had controlled the Texas Senate since the 1872 elections. Since the implementation of Jim Crow voting restrictions in the early 1900s, Democrats had held unanimous or nearly unanimous control of the entire state legislature. These legislators were almost exclusively White men, with White women and Hispanic men winning office from time to time.May Janice C. The Evolution of the Texas Legislature: A Historical Overview https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/texas-legislature 18 September 2025 Texas State Historical Association en No African American had won any election to the legislature in the entire 20th century up to this point.Bickerstaff Steve Gerrymandering Texas Texas Tech University Press 2020 978-1-68283-073-4 Heath C. Robert Lubbock 81–82 Malapportionment Several senate districts had wildly disproportionate populations, with ratios as large as 9:1 in the most extreme cases.Brooks Raymond May 18, 1961 Filibuster Ends: Fuller Again Redistricting Loser https://www.proquest.com/docview/1527763194 May 2, 2023 The Austin Statesman A3 1527763194 The Texas Constitution explicitly limited counties to a maximum of one senator each, even if their populations would have called for more than one in an equally-apportioned system.28 May 1961 Redistricting For Texas https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-chronicle-redistricting-for/199458702/ 12 June 2026 The Houston Chronicle2 June 1961 Editorial: Redistricting Ups Harris County Though Proportions Not Perfect https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-houston-chronicle/199475088/ 13 June 2026 The Houston Chronicle Due to this, any attempts to challenge the maps on these grounds in state courts were denied.November 8, 1961 Equitable Redistrict Try Failure https://www.proquest.com/docview/1527812988 live https://web.archive.org/web/20230503001500/https://www.proquest.com/docview/1527812988/8CC924351DB445B8PQ/20 May 3, 2023 May 2, 2023 The Austin Statesman A5 1527812988 Voting rights advocates shifted their efforts to federal courts in 1963, but proceedings moved slowly, awaiting direction from the U.S. Supreme Court in related cases. The challenge had not been resolved by the time of the 1964 elections, so the courts allowed the state to hold them under the original maps. References Category:1964 Texas elections Category:Texas Senate elections Category:November 1964 in the United States Texas Senate election