2006 United States Senate election in Texas

2006 United States Senate election in Texas

November 7, 2006

Nominee Kay Bailey Hutchison Barbara Ann Radnofsky Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 2,661,789 1,555,202 Percentage 61.69% 36.04%

County results Hutchison:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Radnofsky:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%

U.S. senator before election Kay Bailey Hutchison Republican Elected U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Republican

The 2006 United States Senate election in Texas was held November 7, 2006. Incumbent Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison won re-election to a third full term.

As of 2024, this was the last time a Republican won Texas's Class 1 Senate seat with over 60% of the vote, as well as the last time a Republican candidate for this seat won Dallas, Jefferson, or Bexar counties.

General election

Major candidates

Democratic

• Barbara Ann Radnofsky, attorney
• Gene Kelly, retired attorney & 2000 Democratic Senate Nominee
• Darrel Reece Hunter

Republican

• Kay Bailey Hutchison, incumbent U.S. Senator

Campaign

The Democratic nominee 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 April 11, 2006, which Radnofsky won. Radnofsky's campaign platform is available on her website. 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.

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 election, although they had been slipping rapidly.

Debate

2006 United States Senate election in Texas debate

No.	Date	Host	Moderator	Link	Republican	Democratic	Libertarian
Key:  P  Participant   A  Absent   N  Not invited   I  Invited  W  Withdrawn
					Kay Bailey Hutchison	Barbara Ann Radnofsky	Scott Jameson
1	Oct. 19, 2006	KLRN Texas League of Women Voters	Yolette Garcia	C-SPAN	P	P	P

Predictions

Source	Ranking	As of
The Cook Political Report	Solid R	November 6, 2006
Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe R	November 6, 2006
Rothenberg Political Report	Safe R	November 6, 2006
Real Clear Politics	Safe R	November 6, 2006

Polling

Source	Date	Hutchison (R)	Radnofsky (D)
Polimetrix	November 5, 2006	65%	29%
Zogby	October 25, 2006	61%	27%
Rasmussen	October 23, 2006	60%	34%
Rasmussen	August 31, 2006	58%	32%
Rasmussen	August 3, 2006	61%	31%
Rasmussen	July 13, 2006	58%	31%
Rasmussen	May 18, 2006	53%	34%
Rasmussen	January 8, 2006	64%	25%

Results

United States Senate election in Texas, 2006

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Republican	Kay Bailey Hutchison (incumbent)	2,661,789	61.69	−4.65
	Democratic	Barbara Ann Radnofsky	1,555,202	36.04	+3.69
	Libertarian	Scott Jameson	97,672	2.26	+1.10
Majority			1,106,587	25.7
Turnout			4,314,663
	Republican hold		Swing

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

• Newton (Largest city: Newton)

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

• Travis (Largest city: Austin)
• Webb (Largest city: Laredo)

See also

• 2006 United States Senate elections

External links

Official campaign websites (Archived)

• Kay Bailey Hutchison
• Barbara Radnofsky
• Scott Jameson
• The Green Papers link on the Texas Midterm Election