Congressman Henry Bonilla, a seven-term Republican, lost the runoff in Texas-23.
Although the district was redrawn to include more Hispanics after
the Supreme Court ruled that Texas Republicans had drawn it in a
way that diluted minority voting strength, in violation of the
Voting Rights Act, Bonilla had been the favorite to win (both
Bonilla and his Democratic challenger, former Congressman Ciro
Rodriguez, are Hispanic). In November, the incumbent came within a
point of avoiding the runoff entirely.
Instead, Rodriguez beat Bonilla by a better than 10-point
margin. This leaves the Republicans with 200 House seats to the
Democrats’ 234, with one Florida race still in dispute but likely
to go to the GOP.