2021 Republic of Texas Elections
The
2021 Republic of Texas elections were held on Tuesday, November 2, 2021. The Liberal Party's nominee and Mayor of Houston Elizabeth Warren defeated the Democratic nominee and Speaker of the House of Delegates Dan Branch in the presidential election. Incumbent Democratic president Kay Bailey Hutchison decided to forgo a run at a fourth term in office and instead decided to retire. In the congressional elections, Liberals gained control of both Houses of Congress. As a result, the Liberals successfully obtained a government trifecta, the first time since the elections in 2000 that the party gained unified control of Congress and the Cook House.
Warren became her party's nominee after defeating several challengers in the Liberal primaries including then House Minority Leader Ben Ray Lujan, Senator Joseph Deshotel, Senator Joaquin Castro, and former Attorney General Drew Edmonson, while Branch faced little opposition in the Democratic primaries other than former Attorney General Greg Abbott. In the general election, Warren would perform well in the Liberal heartlands along the Rio Grande, on the Eastern Border, and in the Red River Valley, but she would overperform previous Liberal candidates the most in urban areas. In cities such as Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, and her home-town of Oklahoma City, Warren would massively overperform previous Liberal candidates in areas that Liberals have not won in decades, which gave her a 156-143 edge in the District Vote to win the election. 2021 is also the first election since 2000 where the Liberals won the popular vote in the presidential election. Liberals made a net gain of 14 seats in the Senate for a total of 78 seats, taking control of the chamber for the first time since the 2000 elections.
Warren's campaign centered on several issues most notably rolling back the Democratic reforms to Texas's Medicare program, decreasing the voting age from 20 to 16, increasing the minimum wage to $13 an hour, cleaning up the Red River environmental crisis, expanding the citizen-led ballot initiative process, and implementing stronger anti-corruption laws for judges.