No Senators are up for re-election in 2004, meaning only House seats will be on the ballot.

Key races to look at include the state's 19th and 32nd Congressional districts, both of which pit incumbent against incumbent. In the 19th district, Veteran Democratic Rep. Charles Stenholm is running against first-term Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer in one of the redrawn districts the GOP set up in hopes of gaining several Texas seats. In the 32nd district, GOP Rep. Pete Sessions will compete against Democratic Rep. Martin Frost. Frost is in his 13th term; Sessions in his 4th. After six months, two walkouts and three special legislative sessions, Texas lawmakers signed off on a new congressional redistricting map that likely will send more Texas Republicans to Washington.

Democrats opposed every attempt by Republicans to pass a new plan, saying the current congressional boundaries drawn by a court in 2001 should remain in place. House Democrats broke a quorum in their chamber, killing the redistricting effort, when they fled to Ardmore, Okla., in May 2003. Senate Democrats held their own quorum bust when they fled to Albuquerque, N.M., for the full second special legislative session.

The Senate Democrats returned reluctantly after one of their group decided to go back to Texas.

Because the Legislature took so long to approve the plan, it also was forced to vote to push back the Texas primary election by one week to March 9 to allow for the new congressional districts to be incorporated on the ballot.

Republicans pushed for new congressional districts this year even though it was a non-census year, saying that lawmakers _ not judges _ should draw the boundaries.

Under the plan, Republicans could win as many as seven additional seats in the state's congressional delegation, which Democrats now dominate 17-15. Republican Gov. Rick Perry has since signed the bill into law.

The plan seems as thought it will stand, after the nation's Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge from Texas Democrats. They claimed Republicans violated federal law with a strategy to get the redistricting map through the Senate.

In the 2002 elections, Attorney General John Cornyn won the Senate race to replace fellow Republican Phil Gramm, beating Democrat Ron Kirk, a former Dallas mayor. Kirk would have been the state's first black Senator.

Gov. Rick Perry fought off big-spending banker Tony Sanchez, a Democrat, to keep the office in Republican hands.

In the House races, Rep. Chet Edwards, a Democrat, defeated Republican Ramsey Farley, keeping President Bush's home district in Democratic hands.

Longtime state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos won re-election despite an ad aired by his Republican opponent featuring a police video of Barrientos staggering through a roadside sobriety test before his 2001 drunken-driving arrest.