United States Senate election in Texas, 1988
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The 1988 United States Senate election in Texas was held on November 8, 1988. Incumbent Democratic United States Senator Lloyd Bentsen won re-election to a fourth term defeating Republican Representative Beau Boulter.
Bentsen easily won the Democratic nomination for another term, while Boulter came through a run-off in the Republican primary defeating Wes Gilbreath. After being nominated for the senate Bentsen was chosen by Michael Dukakis as his vice-presidential running mate and therefore ran for both the Senate and the vice-presidency at the same time. Bentsen was always the favorite for the senate election and won with 59.2% of the vote, compared to 40% for Boulter.
As of 2017, this was the last time a Democrat won a United States Senate election in Texas.
In the Democratic primary Democratic senator Lloyd Bentsen defeated the same opponent he had beaten in 1982, Joe Sullivan, a psychology professor from San Antonio.
Bentsen had been Senator from Texas since first winning election in 1970 and had been re-elected in 1976 and 1982. He was also Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and the clear favourite for re-election in 1988. Sullivan stood on a platform calling for reduced spending by the federal government, but had been easily defeated by Bentsen in the 1982 Democratic primary. This was repeated in 1988 with Bentsen winning the primary with over 80% of the vote.
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