Staus Quo

November 2022 General Election Summary

By Kenneth Besserman,
Director of Government Affairs and Special Counsel, TXCPA

Nov. 9, 2022

AUSTIN - At the time of writing this article, it appears that the U.S. Senate will likely end up a 50-50 tie again with the final result coming down once again to a runoff on the Georgia Senate race. In the U.S. House, while Republicans will likely take control of the chamber, it will be by the slimmest of margins, not the 20-30 seat majority that many were predicting.

TXCPA wants to congratulate the two CPAs and TXCPA members of the Texas Legislature – Sen. Charles Perry (R-Lubbock) and Rep. Angie Chen Button (R-Dallas) on their reelection. We appreciate all that they do to help the profession and our members.

The Texas congressional delegation maintained its partisan split (25 Republicans, 13 Democrats) with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D) winning new House District 37 and Republican Wesley Hunt winning new House District 38.

Both the U.S. Senate and House results are significant in that they go against the historic trend that sees the sitting president’s party lose a sizable number of seats in their first midterm election.

In Texas, as predicted, Republicans maintained control over the statewide elected offices with electoral wins by Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Comptroller Glenn Hegar, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, and Land Commissioner-elect Dawn Buckingham. All other state offices, including Railroad Commission and the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals positions, were all won or held by Republicans.

The Texas Senate saw one seat, Senate District 10 – Ft. Worth – flip from Democrats to Republicans. Senator-elect Phil King (R) will now represent that seat, increasing the Republican majority to 19-12. In South Texas, Senate District 27 was the most interesting race of the night. The seat has traditionally been held by a Democratic senator, but after the 2021 redistricting cycle, the SD 27 map is now competitive. Democrat Morgan LaMantia won election over Republican Adam Hinojosa by 569 votes. There will be five freshman senators in 2023, which is a typical turnover for the first election after redistricting. Now it the time for TXCPA and our members to build those relationships with the new senators.

In the Texas House, the Republicans increased their majority from 83-67 to 86-64. That is good news for House Speaker Dade Phelan whose candidate slate had a great Tuesday election. Speaker Phelan is now in an excellent position to win reelection as House speaker in January 2023. The House will have 27 freshman representatives, also a typical turnover of the House during a redistricting cycle.

After the 2021 redistricting, the Texas House had very few true swing districts where a candidate from either party could win. This year, the most tightly contested House race was in HD 70 in the Dallas/Plano area. That race saw an enormous amount of national and Texas money poured into the race. Eventually, Democrat Mihaela Plesa beat Republican Jamee Jolly by 821 votes. Republicans did pick up one seat in South Texas, which in recent years has seen many Hispanics beginning to favor some Republican candidates (HD 37 - Janie Lopez).

So, after many months of election predictions, prognostications, analysis and news, the election is over and not that much has changed either nationally or in Texas. The partisan split remains largely the same; the economy, inflation and social issues still dominate. What is different is that now that the 2022 election is behind us, we can begin the race for the White House in 2024. There really never is an end to the election cycle.

Thank you to all our members who are engaged in advocacy and our TXCPA Political Action Committee. There is still a lot more to do as we head into the 2023 legislative session and we look forward to connecting with you in the coming weeks and months.