United States Senate election in Texas, 2006

The United States Senate election for Texas, 2006 was held on November 7, 2006. The winner will serve between January 3, 2007 and January 3, 2013.

Incumbent Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican from Dallas, was running for re-election for the seat she had held since a 1993 special election, when she had been elected to complete the term of Democrat Lloyd Bentsen, who was retiring to become President Clinton's Secretary of the Treasury. She had since been elected to two full terms, winning in 1994 by a 3-2 margin and in 2000 by a 2-1 margin. Hutchison co-sponsored legislation supporting the creation of a constitutional amendment that would limit terms for senators, but had been quoted saying that she would only leave after two terms if such a law applied to all senators. After deciding not to challenge Governor Rick Perry this year, as had been widely speculated, Hutchison was running for a third term.

She had no opposition in the 2006 Republican primary, and had approval ratings in the 60 percent range going into the General Election [http://www.surveyusa.com/client/PollReport.aspx?g=ca95974e-73b1-4317-ab3e-791e5ece016d] , although they have been slipping rapidly.

The Democratic nominee was Houston attorney Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who had never run for public office and was expected to face an uphill battle in the general election, especially in a state that has not elected a Democrat statewide since 1994 and against a historically popular Hutchison. Since neither Radnofsky nor her main opponent, Gene Kelly, had received a majority of votes in the Democratic primary, a runoff was held on April 11, 2006, which Radnofsky won. Radnofsky's campaign platform is available on her website. [http://www.radnofsky.com]

Scott Lanier Jameson won the Libertarian Party nomination at the party's state convention on June 10, 2006, defeating Timothy Wade and Ray Salinas. Arthur W. Loux, a Roman Forest City Councilman and a member of the Minutemen, was running as an independent.

Candidates

Republican Party

*Kay Bailey Hutchison, "Incumbent" - former anchorwoman, business woman, state representative, and state treasurer

Democratic Party

*Barbara Ann Radnofsky - attorney, mediator, volunteer, teacher

Libertarian Party

*Scott Jameson

Former Candidates

Democratic Party

*Darrel Reece Hunter
*Gene Kelly - attorney, perennial candidate, and Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2000

The candidates listed below did not meet the deadline to file as either independent candidates on the ballot or official write-in candidates and therefore, no votes will be counted for them.

Green Party

*Herschel "Rusty" Tomlinson

Independent

*Arthur W. Loux - Minuteman and Roman Forest City Councilman

Polling

General Election

Election results

100% of precincts reporting:

Election box candidate with party link
party = Republican Party (US)
candidate = Kay Bailey Hutchison (inc.)
votes = 2,661,789
percentage = 61.7
change = -3.3Election box candidate with party link
party = Democratic Party (US)
candidate = Barbara Ann Radnofsky
votes = 1,555,202
percentage = 36.0
change = +3.6Election box candidate with party link
party = Libertarian Party (US)
candidate = Scott Jameson
votes = 97,672
percentage = 2.3
change = +1.1Election box majority
votes = 1,106,587
percentage = 25.7
change = Election box turnout
votes = 4,314,663
percentage =
change = Election box hold with party link
winner = Republican Party (US)
loser =
swing =

External links

* [http://hutchison.senate.gov Senator Hutchison's Official Page]
* [http://www.radnofsky.com Barbara Radnofsky Campaign]
* [http://www.thegreenpapers.com/G06/TX.phtml The Green Papers link on the Texas Midterm Election]
* [http://www.scottjameson.org/ Scott Jameson's Campaign]

sequence
prev= 2002
John Cornyn
list= Texas U.S. Senate elections
2006
next= 2008